How does menopause influence women health? Is it true that menopause necessarily results in increased body weight and fatness? Is becoming an "apple" body type dangerous ? Does high fitness level protect against
cancer and heart disease without weight control?
Q: Is it true that menopause necessarily results in increased body weight and fatness?
A: Yes and no.
Menopausal transition results in only modest increases in body mass index or total fatness. What really matters, is body fat re-distribution - the body type may change from a favorable "pear" (waist is much narrower than hips) to an risky "apple" (waist is almost same or even wider than hips). Risky - because there are plenty of evidence connecting this body type to a higher chance of heart disease (American Journal of Physiology. 275(4 Pt 1):E626-34).
Q: Is becoming an "apple" dangerous in other ways?
A: Yes (read more, click here)
After menopause the risk of breast cancer is positively and significantly associated with the ratio of waist-to-hip circumferences (International Journal of Cancer. 76(5):647-51, 1998)
Q: Is it possible to prevent these changes?
A: Yes.
A study conducted by the Center for Physical Activity, Disease Prevention and Aging, Department of Kinesiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, has shown that postmenopausal endurance-trained runners had only approximately half as great an increase in body fat as in the sedentary postmenopausal women's group. Their conclusion:
The present findings provide experimental support for the hypothesis that women who regularly engage in vigorous endurance exercise may not gain body weight and undergo only a modest increase in total body fat, as well as not demonstrating a significant elevation in central adiposity with age.
Q: Does high fitness level protect against heart disease even without weight control?
A: No.
At least not in the case of menopause. The same Center studied two groups of postmenopausal women matched for training volume and competitive eliteness, swimmers and runners. They concluded that
"...higher total and abdominal body fatness [in swimmers] is, in general, associated with a less favorable metabolic coronary heart disease risk profile."
(Metabolism: Clinical & Experimental. 47(9):1112-20)
Q: Can hormone replacement therapy help against gaining body fat and especially transitioning to the "bad" body type?
A: Yes.
The University of Pisa, Italy, conducted this kind of study and the results suggest that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can counteract at least in part the postmenopausal increase in body weight and body fat and prevent central body fat distribution ("apple" type) after menopause. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 82(12):4074, 1997)
Q: Can diet improve metabolism impaired by menopause?
A: Yes and no (read more, click here)
Yes - because generally speaking, the changes in body composition and body weight at menopause are mediated, at least in part by changes in 24-hour energy expenditure, physical activity, and food intake.
No - because there are changes as we, men and women, are aging that occur independent of diets, like the body fat composition (if you need specifics - decline in the rate of beta-6 desaturation occurs). However, The results of University of Dundee, Ninewells, study may indicate that an increase in dietary gamma-linolenic acid is necessary with age to offset the imbalance. (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 51(9):619-24, 1997)
