Fat…to boldly go where where none has gone before
That body tire around the middle that tends to plague most women in their late forties and fifties and into old age reminds me of Star Trek – boldly going where no fat has ever gone before. Despite an hour at the gym daily, eating healthy and moderate (okay sometimes more than moderate) intake of alcohol, I still can’t seem to conquer that bulge that’s creeping into my midsection. I’ve spoken to trainers and nutritionists about it and have even tried conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which theoretically helps reduce deposits of body fat. And still, fluctuating hormones and aging seem determined to redistribute that midsection bulge in ways that remain unacceptable (at least, to me). More importantly, however, is the fact that fat that settles in the abdominal areas increases the risk for impaired blood fat and insulin levels that can lead to diabetes and heart disease.
I’ve written about weight and the middle-aged bulge several times in the past and you can find some of these posts here. My friend Mollie Katzen and I collaborated on a post earlier this year about eating habits, food and midlife. And still, an effective solution to the bold bulge continues to elude women, trainers and researchers alike.
Still, a very small study published in the online edition of Menopause shows that hope may still spring eternal. In fact, results suggests that women who took 70 mg isoflavones daily (i.e. 44 mg daidzein, 16 mg glycitein, 10 mg genistein) for six months and then added at least an hour of intensive aerobics, circuit training and resistance training at least three times weekly for another six months experienced significant declines in blood pressure, fat mass and total body weight, and a small reduction in waist circumference (of about an inch and a half). In this particular study, the researchers selected women who were known to respond physically and beneficially to exercise. However, only the women who supplemented their exercise with isoflavones had demonstrable improvements in their fat mass and distribution. These women also experienced improvements in their insulin levels.
Clearly, the benefits of isoflavones added to exercise from both a weight and health perspective need to be explored more thoroughly and with larger numbers of women. However, it is possible that the addition of soy to a regular exercise routine may help to address that elusive bulge from entering the black hole that we call midlife.
Stay tuned!
Read MoreIs black cohosh a flash in the pan?
I am a true believer of black cohosh, that wonderful herb that for many women, simply stops hot flashes in their tracks. The clinical evidence in support of the effect of black cohosh on symptoms has also been pretty positive, except when it comes to bone health. Admittedly, I’m a bit in the dark on this one because I had never read anything associating the two…until now.
To examine the effect of black cohosh on bone density, researchers randomly assigned 128 postmenopausal to one of three regimens:
1) Six weeks of highly intensive exercise directed towards protecting bone mass (e.g., strength training, aerobic activity) interspersed with 10 weeks of moderate intensity exercise (e.g. brisk walking)
2) The above program plus 40 mg/day black cohosh
3) Wellness program (light exercise for one hour a week, such as stretching, walking, balance)
Although exercise had a definite and positive effect on bone mineral density, taking black cohosh provided no additional benefit. However, women who were assigned to wellness only did experience a minor decrease in the bone density in their spine compared with women who exercised. Other variables, including lean body mass, heart disease risk and menopausal symptoms, were also favourably impacted by physical activity but again, not by the addition of black cohosh. The study was published in the online edition of Menopause.
Clearly, when it comes to bone density, exercise is the winner. Black cohosh does not appear to add any additional benefits, although it may ultimately prove to enhance any positive effects on menopausal symptoms, especially since previous clinical trials have been favourably in this regard.
Time will only tell. In the interim, keep moving and don’t rely on black cohosh to preserve your bone health.
As always, Reuters Health has done great reporting on this same study. I encourage you to check it out!
Read MoreWISHFIT: women’s research takes a village.
I was heartened to read that the folks at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have partnered with a community of local women to fight obesity and promote a healthier menopausal transition. What’s especially novel about this program, which is called WISHFIT (Women in Southside Health FIT), is that during the first year of the five-year study, it will be relying on “pioneers” for guidance in designing and testing the program and subsequently spreading the word. One of the program’s primary researchers, Dr. Sheila Dugan, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rush University Medical School, characterizes the approach as “community-based participatory medicine,” with a critical grassroots component. I would go one step further and call it a health 2.0, social media approach to medical research.
The goals of WISHFIT are to ultimately change the behavior of women who are sedentary or engage in physical activity only occasionally in order to help reduce the fat rolls around the midsection (called visceral fat). If you’ve been reading Flashfree for awhile, you will recall that visceral fat is a common problem in menopausal women that is likely related to fluctuating hormone levels as we age. Not only is it unattractive, but the development of fat around the midsection is dangerous because it has been linked with metabolic syndrome, a variety of symptoms that in concordance, increase the risk for heart disease.
Importantly, the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestion and Kidney Diseases are joining forces with Rush to take the study out of the laboratory setting and into the community. In fact, Dr. Dugan explains that research has shown that “there are millions of studies out there that show if we bring women into the University and have them exercise, they will lose weight and improve their fat composition. But when they are left to their own devices, they go back to themselves.” She says that by having a community of postmenopausal women involved in developing a ‘tool kit’ of physical and stress-reducing activities or activities that help them to embrace healthier eating habits, the researchers are hoping that they can help their premenopausal peers incorporate new ways of thinking and acting so that they can get through menopause in healthier ways. She also points to data showing that change is better maintained not only by motivating the individual but also through the support of friends and social networks, which are needed for change to last.
Dr. Dugan notes that two Southside Chicago communities- Beverly and Morgan Park – have been the subject of prior research (Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation or SWAN) that identified the link between hormonal changes and visceral fat. In fact, some of the data also firmly established the link between markers of chronic disease and stress and sedentary lifestyles. The 30 Pioneers selected to lead the project will be women who participated in SWAN.
The five-year program also includes two studies examining 1) how social networks play a role in influencing health behaviors, and 2) if positive reinforcement works as well as financial incentives in getting women to change their lifestyle and become more physically active. An additional component entails before and after ‘person on the street’ interviews to educate and engage the community about what happens during menopause, heart disease and other risks and steps that can be taken to combat it.
“Midlife women already have all sorts of concerns on their minds. They need to have support around allowing themselves to take care of themselves and give themselves the freedom to actually step out of all their roles to do so. Our goal,” she emphasizes,”is to bring energy — spiritual and financial — to the community because we truly believe that the only way that these women will have a chance to take care of themselves is by everyone around them buying into how important it is.”
Noting that they are taking a three-pronged attack that entails community, social and individual level interventions, Dr. Dugan adds that community and social support are the links that have been missing in obesity research in particular. I’d like to believe that these links have also been missing in gender research that focuses on women; in fact, perhaps this model isthe breakthrough that is needed to change some gender inequities in our healthcare.
It really does take a village, doesn’t it? Only time will tell.
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: breast cancer during menopause- move your body
[Credit: Stephen diFilipo, Fountain at the Gaylord Hotel, National Harbor ©2009. With permission]
October is National Breast Cancer month. In honor of family and friends who have survived breast cancer, I am dedicating this month’s Bubbles to posting choice bits of information about the topic this month. I admire these women greatly – for their strength, their tenacity and their hope. Rock on ladies!
Nothing like a bit of good news to kick off the month!
Early this year, I wrote about a study showing that exercise could help reduce breast cancer risk. Today’s post provides evidence that the timing and intensity of that activity makes a huge difference.
In this study, which appears in BioMed Central Cancer, researchers examined and compared the relationship of light physical activity to moderate to vigorous activity and its association to breast cancer risk in 118,699 women in menopause. Activity levels were studied during four periods of life: ages 15 to 18, ages 19 to 29, ages 35 to 39 and the past 10 years. Light activities included bowling, golf (riding in a cart), table tennis, slow walking/slow dancing, light calesthenics, light gardening, fishing, horseshoes/croquet and light housework. Moderate-to-vigorous activities included tennis, golf (walking), biking, swimming, heavy gardening, weight lifting, basketball/baseball, football/soccer, cheerleading/drill team, handball/raquetball, hiking/mountain climbing, fast walking/fast dancing, rowing, aeroboics, jogging/running and heavy housework.
The researchers found no association between activity intensity and breast cancer risk in the time periods leading up to menopause. However, Women engaging in more than 7 hours per week of moderate to vigorous activity during the past 10 years had a significant, 16% lower risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who were inactive or only engaged in light activity. This benefit remained even when the researchers took factors such as age, body mass index, family history, or hormone use into consideration. The type of tumour cancer stage also had no effect.
Although researchers have been aware that a high versus low level of physical activity may protect against developing breast cancer during menopause, this is the first study to actually examine activity during other time periods and then compare them to more recent time periods.
Clearly, it’s time to move your body if you’ve not been doing so. A 16% reduction in breast cancer risk is significant.
Read MoreExtreme makeover
Great news for women in menopause: it appears that vigorous physical exercise can turn back the clock, at least as far as physical capacity and weight loss ability goes!
Findings from two studies, one published this past July in the Journal of Applied Physiology, and the other this September, in Metabolism – Clinical and Experimental, show for the first time that despite age-related deceases in hormone levels, lean body mass and aerobic capacity, training can achieve the same health benefits that women 16 years younger might experience.
In both studies, researchers looked at the effects of cycling (on a stationary bike) for an hour, five days a week at 65% of maximum lung capacity in 10 sedentary but otherwise healthy postmenopausal women.
(FYI: The term ‘lung capacity’ refers to the maximum amount of air that a person’s lungs can hold after the greatest possible inspiratory effort. When you exhale, the amount of air left in your lungs is known as ‘residual volume.’ This can be affected by age, aerobic capacity and a host of other factors. After the age of 30, the capacity to use and consume oxygen drops by about 1% per year)
In the first, they found that all study participants increased their body’s capacity to consume and use oxygen (known as VO2max) by as much as 16%. At the same time, resting heart rate decreased an average of 4 beats per minute. By the study’s end, blood pressure had also dropped substantially and heart capacity during exercise increased. What’s more, study participants were able to burn fat more efficiently — by about 10%, without relying on carbohydrates. (A primary reason why weight loss can be difficult for women with specific dietary changes is that unlike men, blood sugar (glucose) levels (usually derived from stored carbohydrates) remain stable during exercise and metabolism quickly returns to normal after. So despite vigorous training, weight may remain the same. This is even more true for women going through menopause, as fluctuating hormone levels affect metabolism and the ability to clear glucose from the blood.)
Similar findings were also seen in the second study; not only were women able to consume and use oxygen more significantly, but their ability to metabolize glucose improved by 35%, without any changes in dietary habits.
Overall, these study findings suggest that “older” women can improve and make significant changes in their cardiovascular and metabolic capacities, often to the same extent as women substantially younger, without having to go on extreme diets! The researchers say that these results are also encouraging in terms of increasing overall energy levels and keeping risk for disease in check.
Granted, the training regimens that the study participants undertook were quite strenuous and required a commitment, both in terms of time and exercise frequency. Nevertheless, the researchers believe that even less strenuous exercise could likely produce some degree of benefit.
So, do you need an extreme makeover to realize better health? Not really! Just a bit of inspiration and some kick-ass music to keep you going at the gym. Nice to know that great benefits can be achieved without starving ourselves!
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