Some women experience menopause quite early in life—even in their early or mid-40s. If this describes you or someone you’re close to, you’ll be especially interested in learning the results of a new study on early menopause and the risk for heart disease. It’s important stuff—if you fall into a particular category, it’s not an overstatement to say that it could even be life-saving.

It turns out that women who had menopause before age 46 are at double the risk for heart disease or stroke later in life compared with women whose menopause came later. That’s a startlingly high increase in risk—enough that it means that women who had early menopause should take extra precautions to protect their health. The study’s lead researcher, Melissa Wellons, MD, assistant professor in the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told me that her goal with this research is to help women at high risk make decisions about how to protect themselves from heart disease. It’s a big group, she said, since 5% to 10% of women experience menopause before age 46.

How to Stay Young at Heart

The research team studied more than 2,500 women, 28% of whom had experienced early menopause either naturally or because their ovaries had to be removed. The findings were presented recently at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

The reason for the apparent link between early menopause and cardiovascular disease isn’t entirely clear, but the researchers have several theories—the most obvious relating to the loss of hormones produced by the ovaries after menopause. Another theory, said Dr. Wellons, is that some lifestyle-based cardiovascular disease risk factors may be more common in women with early menopause. “For example, these women are more likely to be smokers, a factor that may have contributed to their early loss of ovarian function,” she said.

While menopause isn’t something women get to schedule for themselves, there are other risk factors that you can control—both before and after menopause—most importantly lifestyle. “There’s no doubt that losing weight and exercising will reduce your cardiovascular risk no matter what your ovary status is,” said Dr. Wellons, noting that women with early menopause who are lean, nonsmoking and exercising at early menopause are at significantly lower risk for future heart disease than any woman who is overweight, smokes and doesn’t exercise, regardless of when she went through menopause.

“The study findings should give an extra nudge to women with increased heart disease risk to work on things they can control to reduce that risk,” Dr. Wellons said. “If you smoke, stop. Exercise, eat a healthy diet and control your weight. Pay attention to cholesterol and blood pressure levels and get those treated, if necessary.”

According to Daily Health Newscontributing editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, it’s also helpful to take 200 mg to 300 mg of magnesium daily (as long as you don’t have kidney problems) and 3 grams a day of fish oil (as long as you are not on a blood thinner), both shown to be protective of cardiovascular health.

Yes, this all adds up to a bit of effort, but look at it this way—it’s for a very good cause. Working at getting and staying healthy will result in a longer, healthier and happier life, which gives you all the more time to enjoy doing other things that make you happy!