Staying slim at menopause (2)

Oladapo Ashiru | credits: File copy

Contd. from last week

Androgen: This hormone is responsible for sending your new weight directly to your mid section. In fact, weight gain during menopausal years is often known as mid age spread because of the rapid growth of the mid-section. Often, one of the first signs of menopause is an increased level of androgen in your body, which causes you to gain weight around your abdomen instead of around your lower half.

Testosterone: helps your body to create lean muscle mass out of the calories that you take in. Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells do, thereby increasing your metabolism. In natural menopause, levels of testosterone drop, resulting in the loss of muscle. Unfortunately, this means a lower metabolism rate. The lower your metabolism is, the slower your body burns calories.

Hormone replacement

There are some misconceptions about hormone replacement therapy that, if followed, can make you gain weight during menopause. The first misconception is that decreased estrogen levels is the main reason for many of the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause, such as hot flushes, sweating and mood swings, to mention but a few.

We now know that the deficiency in estrogen is not the cause of these menopausal symptoms.

Actually, this false/incorrect theory was encouraged by the pharmaceutical industry so they could sell their synthetically fabricated estrogen. The unfortunate resultant effect of synthetic estrogen, apart from causing breast cancer and other side effects, is that it always leads to significant weight gain.

Another misconception is that using natural estrogen, called phytoestrogens, from plant sources such as flaxseed, soy, evening primrose oil and fish oil instead of synthetic estrogen will be better for you and reduce the risk of breast and other cancers. Such natural sources of estrogen should not lead to breast cancer; however, their use could result in weight gain due to their estrogenic reactions in the body.

New research has shown that it is the decline in progesterone that causes most of the menopausal symptoms and progesterone replacement will normally stop most of these symptoms. Again, the progesterone must be from natural, plant-derived sources, and not from synthetic sources.

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Staying slim at menopause (2)