Reported June 10, 2009
ScienceDaily (June 10, 2009) — Older women who
take hormone therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms may get the added
benefit of reduced body fat if they are physically active, according to a
new study. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual
Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The study provides new information on the health benefits of any type of
physical activity, not just exercise, said the presenting author Poli Mara
Spritzer, MD, PhD, a professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do
Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and chief of the Gynecological Endocrinology
Unit at the university's Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre.
After menopause, a woman's percentage of body fat tends to increase and
redistribute to the abdomen, Spritzer said. Excess belly fat is a risk
factor for diabetes and heart disease. Postmenopausal women who exercise
have a lower percentage of body fat than sedentary women, past research
shows. However, Spritzer said less is known about the influence on body fat
composition of physical activity in women receiving hormone replacement
therapy, or HRT. Some data suggest that estrogen treatment may add to the
effect of exercise in reducing fat.
Spritzer and her colleagues studied 34 healthy women who
had an average age of 51 years, had experienced menopause for less than 3
years and sought HRT to relieve hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal
dryness. They evaluated the women's cholesterol levels, body mass index
(BMI), waist circumference (a measure of abdominal fat) and percentage of
body fat before and after 4 months of HRT. The women received estrogen plus
progesterone therapy in either non-oral (nasal and vaginal) or low-dose oral
preparations. For 6 consecutive days before starting HRT and 6 days at the
end of HRT, women wore a pedometer to estimate their level of physical
activity. The device measured the steps they took, including walking,
working, and doing house chores and leisure activities. They were instructed
to not change their usual activities. Most of the women did not play sports
or do any structured physical exercise, according to Spritzer.
Results showed that 24 of the women were physically active—defined as taking
6,000 steps or more per day—and 10 were inactive (less than 6,000 steps a
day). For a woman who has a step, or stride, length of 2 feet (60 cm), 6,000
steps would be around 2.25 miles (3.6 km), Spritzer estimated. For active
women, the higher the number of steps they took, the lower was their waist
measurement and the better their level of "good" (high-density-lipoprotein,
or HDL) cholesterol, the authors reported. The inactive women did not have
any changes in body fat or cholesterol. However, when all 34 women were
considered in the analysis, body fat still declined significantly after HRT.
"Data from our study suggest that active women could benefit from hormone
therapy beyond the relief of menopausal symptoms—by preserving a good body
fat percentage and distribution," Spritzer said. "Further studies with a
larger number of subjects are needed in order to answer whether a specific
physical activity is better than others."
The Brazilian National Council for Science and Technology and the Brazilian
National Institute of Hormones and Women's Health funded this study.
