Apples,
Pears,
and Fitness. How Menopause Influences Women's Health.
by Tanya Zilberter,
PhD
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)
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