Menopause is all about change – changes in hormone levels and sometimes unwanted symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings and changes in body weight. It is also a time when women suddenly realize it’s time to wake up and start doing the right things from a health standpoint. If menopause leads to positive health changes, that’s a good thing! Fortunately, the symptoms don’t hang around forever, but for some women, they’re inconvenient while they last.
If you’re going through menopause or fast approaching it, you probably wonder what you can do to make the transition a little easier. If you’re working out or plan on starting, you may question what impact exercise has on menopausal symptoms. Let’s see what research shows about exercise and its effect on menopause symptoms.
Exercise and Menopause: Does Exercise Ease Symptoms?
Some of the most common symptoms women experience as menopause approaches are mood changes, fatigue, “brain fog” and hot flashes. Can exercise help? A study involving more than 2600 women from Finland showed being moderately physically active at least 2.5 hours per week of moderate activity or vigorously active 1.25 hours per week reduced the severity of all of these symptoms, although after adjusting for differences in BMI and educational level, the difference wasn’t significant for hot flashes. Just as importantly, active women in this study reported an overall better quality of life compared to women who were sedentary as they entered menopause.
Weight Gain and Menopause
If there’s one thing women of menopausal age are terrified of it’s gaining weight. It’s true that many women do put on extra pounds when they go through the menopausal transition, but how much of that is due to inactivity rather than menopause itself? Estrogen levels greatly drop after menopause and, according to some research, this contributes to weight gain. Some studies suggest that the drop in estrogen that goes along with menopause slows resting metabolism, thereby making it easier to gain weight. Insulin sensitivity also decreases, so you have higher insulin levels and a tendency to store more fat.
It’s true that hormonal changes work against you during and after menopause, but only about 4 out of 10 women continue to exercise once they reach menopausal age. How much of the metabolic slow-down is due to loss of lean body mass, and how much of the reduction in insulin sensitivity would be reversed with regular strength and aerobic conditioning? Strength training gives your metabolism a boost by increasing lean body mass, and both aerobic and resistance exercise improves insulin sensitivity. These are two major factors that contribute to weight gain during menopause and at any age and exercise helps you conquer them.
Other Reasons to Exercise during and After Menopause
Improving insulin sensitivity and retaining lean body mass aren’t the only reason to work up a sweat. During and after menopause is when bone density begins to decline more rapidly. High-impact exercise and resistance training both help to slow bone loss. In fact, women who resistance train have higher bone densities than sedentary women at every stage of life. Don’t forget that bone density is directly linked to the risk of fractures, especially hip fractures. Keep your workouts challenging. You have to overload your muscles to have a significant impact on your bones, so light weights won’t cut it. Make sure you’re using a weight that challenges you.
Resistance training is essential for reducing the loss of muscle tissue. Did you know you lose about 30% of your strength between the ages of 50 and 70? Resistance training can help you avoid becoming weaker and less functional as you age.
Preserving bone density and muscle tissue isn’t the benefit you’ll get if you work out. Training helps improve balance, something else that declines after menopause. Add a balance challenge to some exercise by balancing on one leg as you do curls or by doing some exercises standing on a Bosu ball. Challenge yourself with one-legged squats and single-leg deadlifts. Place your feet as close together as possible when doing upper body exercises. This narrows your base and forces you to work harder to balance. Do this regularly, in combination with resistance training, and you’ll greatly reduce your risk of falling and fracturing a hip.
Regular exercise also lowers your risk for heart disease. When women reach menopausal age, the protection they enjoy against heart disease disappears and their rate for heart attacks nearly equals that of men. Cardiovascular exercise makes your heart a more efficient pump, lowers blood pressure and helps you achieve a more favorable lipid profile. HDL, the good form of cholesterol, drops after menopause, and exercise helps to raise it. Cardiovascular exercise also reduces your risk of sudden cardiac death.
Better Mood and Less Brain Fog
When you’re feeling anxious or edgy, the flood of endorphins that a vigorous workout brings is therapeutic. Use it to your advantage. One study showed women who increased their level of physical activity the most over a 3 year period experienced the least symptoms of stress and anxiety during menopause.
What about that annoying brain fog? Not only does exercise “clear your head,” it stimulates the release of a brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a chemical that fuels the growth of new nerve cells. It also increases the hippocampus, a portion of the brain involved in memory. The hippocampus decreases in size as we age and is correlated with reductions in memory. All in all, exercise is good for your brain, but you knew that, didn’t you?
The Bottom Line
Exercise can greatly improve many aspects of menopause, including a number of health parameters and quality of life. Where it MAY not be helpful is for the relief of hot flashes, based on the most recent studies. Still, you have to love all the benefits exercise DOES offer when you’re approaching or going through menopause!
References:
Medscape Family Medicine. “Exercise Helps Menopause Symptoms and Quality of Life” December 29, 2014.
WebMD. “Menopause, Weight Gain, and Exercise Tips”
Greenville Health System. “Weight Gain and Peri-menopause-Is there anything that can be done?”
Action Plan for Menopause. Barbara Bushman, Janice Clark-Young and American College of Sports Medicine.
Medscape Family Medicine. “Exercise at Menopause: A Critical Difference”
David Perl Mutter M.D. “Neurogenesis – Grow New Brain Cells Through Exercise”
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014 Nov 28;11:CD006108. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006108.pub4.
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