Physical activity has often been associated with better health. A new study makes things more specific, and probably motivating, for post-menopausal women. It concludes that ‘leisure-time physical activity’ could mean a lower menopause-associated cardiovascular risk.
The Finland-based study was published in the Molecular and Structural Endocrinology section of the Frontiers in Endocrinology journal. It was conducted as a part of the Estrogenic Regulation of Muscle Apoptosis (ERMA) study, which is a larger population-based cohort study seeking to examine the changes in body composition and the risk of metabolic disorders that can be associated with menopause. The participants include middle-aged Caucasian women.
The paper acknowledges cardiovascular diseases as a leading cause of death amongst women in developed countries. It also notes that a rapid increase in cardiovascular risk follows menopause and found that leisure-time physical activity among this section of the population can help lower the same. However, the results were not as encouraging when observed for lipid profile regarding the menopausal transition.
“Based on our findings, leisure-time physical activity was associated with a healthier blood lipid profile,” explains postdoctoral researcher Sira Karvinen from the Gerontology Research Center, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. “Yet advancing menopausal status predicted a less healthy lipid profile, suggesting that leisure-time physical activity does not entirely offset the unfavorable lipid profile changes associated with the menopausal transition.” [1]
The study further points that more leisure-time physical activity paired with dietary intervention might be essential to obtain further clinically relevant results.
