Menopause is the Best Time for Women to Exercise, Researchers Say
It’s never too late to start exercising, especially for women. According to new research, menopause may be the ideal time for women to begin exercising.
While menopause seems to be the stage of anxiety, hot flashes and mood swings, it may also be a great time to start exercising. It was previously thought that the benefits of exercise would rapidly diminish. But the study, carried out by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, suggests that actually the opposite may be true.
About 1.9 million British women go through the menopause stage at any one time. The change, which usually starts in the late 40s and early 50s, is triggered when the body stops making oestrogen and other sex hormones.
The study suggests the reduction in oestrogen may actually improve the take-up of oxygen in the muscles.
For the study, the researchers tracked a group of 36 women in their early 50s, 16 of whom had recently started the menopause and 20 who had not yet started the change. Each woman was subjected to a 12-week training regime of high intensity cycling.
They then took tissue samples to assess the molecular changes in their thigh muscles.
They found the post-menopausal group had a better network of blood vessels, supplying more oxygen where it was needed.
This indicated their muscles had adapted better to the exercise, the researchers found.
‘These findings suggest that the early post-menopausal phase is associated with an enhanced capacity of the leg vasculature and skeletal muscle mitochondria to adapt to exercise training.’ the researchers wrote.
‘The present study pinpoints a possible signalling pathway at the cellular level that may underlie the higher sensitivity to physical activity in recent postmenopausal women.’
The findings suggest it is never too late to take up exercise.
Source of this article:
Why it’s never too late to start going to the gym: How the menopause is the ’best time for women to start exercise’
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