Exercise Can Ward Off Ills That Come With Menopause, Medical Journal Reports

Menopause doesn’t have to make a woman feel suddenly old. Exercise can help retain strength and vitality.

“Exercise decreases risk factors for coronary artery disease, decreases the risk of osteoporosis, strengthens pelvic structure and improves mood,” said a report in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, a medical journal.

Studies find that taking up aerobic exercise can increase endurance, according to the article by Dr. Kathleen M. Hargarten of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Diseases of the heart are a special concern to women at menopause because diminished estrogen production robs them of that hormone’s apparent protective effect against cholesterol increases, the article said.

But exercise seems to increase production of high-density lipoproteins, which sweep away low-density lipoproteins, the cholesterol component that can lead to artery-clogging buildups of plaque.

“There are indications that even relatively low- to moderate-intensity exercise can produce significant increases in HDL cholesterol,” Hargarten wrote in the January issue of the journal.

Her personal prescription leans toward moderation, calling for a minimum of three vigorous 20-minute aerobic exercise sessions per week. But some researchers have found that daily walking can improve HDL levels.

Reduction in estrogen can also lead to the brittle-bone disease known as osteoporosis. But exercise puts stress on bones, which stimulates them to become stronger, the article said.

Estrogen replacement is considered the best therapy against bone loss in post-menopausal women. But “recent evidence suggests that exercise also helps prevent and possibly reverse bone loss caused by aging,” the article said.

This may be overstating the benefits, said Barbara L. Drinkwater, a researcher on osteoporosis.

Some women will think that exercise, combined with adequate calcium, the raw material of bone, will protect them--but there’s no evidence to support this, Drinkwater said.

Exercise can, however, prevent a bad thing from getting unnecessarily worse, said Drinkwater, a research physiologist at Pacific Medical Center in Seattle.

“It would prevent the bone loss that would occur from being inactive,” Drinkwater said. But the value of exercise alone “is not really very impressive,” she said.

There’s no evidence that exercise can help a woman control hot flashes, the article said. But exercise can fight atrophy of the muscles and ligaments of the pelvis--an important point, because atrophy can increase the risk of prolapse, Hargarten said.

Hargarten praises Kegel exercises--tightening of the pelvic diaphragm muscles--to fight these problems. Women should first learn how the muscles function by stopping urine midstream, she said. She recommends 25 Kegels twice a day, for up to 10 seconds per contraction.

Some studies have found that middle-age women who exercise regularly showed less anxiety and depression than did women who didn’t exercise, the article said. Exercise can give a person a feeling of accomplishment, it said.

“Individuals who are capable of exercise can maintain their independence and sense of well-being, so the basic issue is quality of life,” said Dr. Raul Ortal of the SUNY Upstate Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Syracuse, N.Y. This can lead indirectly to brighter moods, he said.

To gain psychological benefits, women should decide what they want from exercise, what they enjoy and how exercise would best fit their schedule, Hargarten wrote.