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When you reach menopause, you may still worry about your weight - just as you did in your 30s, but you may also have some new health concerns such as heart disease and osteoporosis.
Living a healthy lifestyle now is just as important as it was back then. Keys to staying healthy include eating a proper diet, watching your weight, exercising, taking a daily multivitamin and making regular visits to your doctor.
Reduce your health risks
The following can put you at greater risk for heart disease, osteoporosis and other disorders:
- Physical inactivity
- Stress
- Smoking
- Abnormal cholesterol levels
- High blood pressure
- Being more than 20 percent over your recommended weight
- Having more than three alcoholic drinks each day
Eat a healthy diet
Eat a balanced diet that includes lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, minerals and vitamins, with a minimal amount of saturated fats and no more than one teaspoon of salt a day. Supplement your diet with vitamins and calcium. Besides avoiding animal fat and foods with high cholesterol, women should use olive or canola oil for cooking, and avoid hydrogenated oil and trans-fatty acids found in margarine and prepared foods. Women should eat fish, especially oily fish, at least two times a week. If a woman drinks alcohol, she should have no more than one drink a day.
Women can prevent disease with good nutrition. The risk of osteoporosis is diminished by an adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D.
Postmenopausal women should get 1,200 to 1,500 mg of calcium each day. Good sources of calcium include low-fat or nonfat diary products, green leafy vegetables, and calcium-fortified foods and juices. Taking vitamin D supplements helps the body absorb that calcium.
Exercise
Exercise helps many menopause complaints, such as hot flashes, joint pain, irritability and sleep disturbances. It also reduces the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and weight gain.
According to the North American Menopause Society, three types of exercise can help postmenopausal women stay healthy: aerobic, weight bearing and flexibility. For the greatest effect, get 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise every day. Aerobic exercise leads to the loss of abdominal fat, relieves tension, overcomes depression and irritability associated with menopause, and restores sleep.
Weight-bearing exercise can delay or prevent bone loss by stimulating the deposition of calcium in bones to keep them dense and strong. During menopause, decreased physical activity results in a significant decline in bone mass. Weight-bearing exercises also increase muscle mass, which puts more weight on bone and, in turn, slows bone loss over time.
In a 12-week study of postmenopausal women on hormone therapy (HT), researchers found a 45-minute walk each day increased the vascular health of the older women to a degree seen in younger women. The aerobic exercise improved the "elasticity" of their arteries, which would likely reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Researchers concluded even though estrogen helps maintain the elasticity of blood vessels, the real benefits come from exercise and not the HT. Talk to your doctor about appropriate exercise for you, before beginning exercise routines.
Exercising, weight management, stress reduction and having a positive attitude help lessen the effects of menopause and lower the risks of chronic diseases.
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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