Study Shows That Exercise Is Good For Women, But It Won't Cut Hot Flashes

Dr. Enrique Jacome

Exercise has proven health benefits, but easing hot flashes isn't one of them. After participating in a 12-week aerobic exercise program, sedentary women with frequent hot flashes had no fewer or less bothersome hot flashes than a control group. This randomized, controlled study from the MsFLASH Research Network was published in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society.

The 248 women in the trial were either approaching menopause or were postmenopausal; 142 of them continued to go about their usual activities, and 106 participated in aerobic exercise training three times a week for 12 weeks at a fitness center. All the women kept daily diaries on their hot flashes and night sweats and on how well they slept and also completed questionnaires about insomnia, depression, and anxiety.

Although exercise had small positive effects on sleep quality, insomnia, and depression, it had no significant effect on hot flashes for the women overall. Race and initial fitness did make some difference, however. White women in the exercise program did show improvement in their hot flashes compared with white women who maintained their usual activity level, but there was no similar difference among African-American women. Also, women who were more fit to begin with had greater improvement in their hot flashes with exercise.

The study helps to settle a debate about the effect of exercise on hot flashes. Previous studies have been inconsistent, but this study corroborates a recent Cochrane review on the topic, which concluded that there was no evidence to support the use of exercise as an effective treatment for hot flashes and night sweats.

"Midlife women cannot expect exercise to relieve [hot flashes and night sweats] but may reasonably expect it to improve how they feel and their overall health," said the investigators.

www.vivenaturalhormones.com

Study Shows That Estrogen May Influence Location Of Women's Fat

Dr. Enrique Jacome

Ever wondered why some women, but not all, have the "pear" shape considered by many to be desirable? Researchers might have found some answers to the mystery, after discovering that estrogen, one of the sex hormones, affects where fat is stored in a woman's body.

The study was conducted by researchers from East Carolina University and published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism. It involved 17 premenopausal women ages of 18 and 44 who were overweight or obese.

Researchers  asked the women to provide:

• Weight
• Height
• Fat percentage
• Lean body mass
• VO2 max (a measure of physical fitness).

They then analyzed how estrogen affects fat accumulation in particular areas of the body.

This was done by slowly infusing estrogen into the buttocks and belly of the women overnight. The women were then given drugs that encouraged the burning of fat in the body (lipolysis). They were also asked to exercise at a level similar to a standard exercise session, both with and without the lipolysis drugs.

Fat breakdown was measured using microdialysis - a sampling technique that looks for the amount of glycerol left behind after the breakdown of fat for eventual energy production.

The researchers found that the effect of estrogen on fat deposits was dependent on the deposits' particular location and how the fat is burned.

Results of the study revealed that estrogen halted fat breakdown in the abdomen area when the hormone was infused alongside a lipolysis drug called isoproterenol. However, it did not have the same effect in the buttocks.

The researchers add that after a second drug was infused in the abdomen along with the first, no further fat was broken down.

But when both of the fat-mobilizing drugs were infused together alongside exercise, and when the participants exercised without the drugs, fat breakdown in the abdomen increased, although less in the buttocks.

The study authors say: "Our results indicate that the influence of E2 (estrogen) is dependent on the adipose tissue (loose connecting tissue) depot of interest as well as the specific regulatory mechanism targeted.

The authors add: 

"The importance of understanding estrogen action in adipose tissue is underscored by the fact that adipose tissue is an estrogen-producing organ, particularly in postmenopausal women, where adipose tissue is the major site of estrogen production."

The scientists say their findings could potentially lead to an understanding of why post-menopausal women are more likely to accumulate fat around the abdomen area.

When it comes to pre-menopausal women, the researchers say that the relationship between estrogen and the breakdown of fat is what may help maintain a woman's "pear" shape - more fat around the middle area of the body.

They conclude that further research is needed to determine the mechanisms as to why and how the effects of estrogen vary.

www.vivenaturalhormones.com

Recognizing Menopausal Symptoms Is The First Step

Dr. Enrique Jacome

When I ask patients to give me a definition of menopause, I receive a variety of answers that consist of “When you get hot flashes” to “Not having a period for over a year”.  Many women go under diagnosed because of the failure of physicians to apply a scientific method for diagnosis. 

Scientifically, a diagnosis is when the level of follicle stimulation hormone (FSH) reaches a level greater than 23 miu/ml, whether she is menstruating or not. Peri-menopause typically begins when a woman is in her 40’s and can average 4 to 8 years.  Menopause occurs roughly in women their early 50’s. Every year it is estimated that 1.3 million women are expected to reach menopause.

I will take you through a series of symptoms that a woman should look for and what should she do next.  NO woman should ever have to suffer through any symptom(s) nor feel less than a woman.  Menopause is a natural part of the aging process.  Not all symptoms will show in all women.  Please use this as a guide only.

During the menopausal transition women may experience sexual dysfunction as well as depressive symptoms.  Due to the loss of estrogen, one’s symptoms can also consist of:

• Hot flashes
• Severe sweating – can happen both day and night
• Insomnia
• Vaginal dryness
• Vaginal discomfort
• Irritability
• Loss of memory or fuzzy thinking
• Cold sweats
• Irregular periods
• Anxiety
• Mood swings
• Headaches
• Sadness

When a woman comes to me with symptoms, as previously stated, I take the time to listen to what each individual patient is telling me, never discounting any of their feelings or symptoms.  My immediate instinct as a Doctor is to help her improve her symptoms and get her on the right track to feeling like a woman again.  My first recommendation is that they have a simple blood test that will measure their pituitary hormone Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) level. Depending upon the blood work I get back from their testing’s, my suggested and most successful form of hormone replacement would be via the Pellet Hormone Delivery System (PHDS). Women who have their hormones replaced via PHDS allows the body to recreate a continuous flow of hormones that the ovaries normally and previously produced within their bodies.  This method of delivery is more important than any other type of replacement therapy as it is surgically inserted and allows the body to control the release of the hormones over time.  Nothing in an oral, patch or cream can reproduce the normal hormone correction that is needed.

Always remember to go with your instinct regarding how you are feeling and if you are displaying some of the symptoms above, as each woman knows best how they should feel and seek the advice of a doctor.  Don’t ever give in or give up to the ugly face of menopause.

Remember to put your fears away, as life during and after menopause can be quite enjoyable!

www.sottopelletherapy.com/doctors/enrique-jacome-md

Urinary Infection During Menopause Treated With Estrogen In Mouse Study

Dr. Enrique Jacome

Estrogen levels drop dramatically in menopause, a time when the risk of urinary tract infections increases significantly. 

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found new evidence in mice that the two phenomena are connected by more than just timing. If further research confirms these links, boosting estrogen levels may get a second look as an approach for reducing urinary infections in menopausal women. 

"Scientists tested estrogen as a treatment for post-menopausal women with urinary tract infections in the 1990s, but the results were either ambiguous or negative," says senior author Indira Mysorekar, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of pathology and immunology. "With the mouse model of menopause that we've created, we can more completely understand how estrogen levels affect infection susceptibility, bladder health and the inflammatory response to infection. That should point the way to better treatment strategies." 

The findings appear online in Infection and Immunity. 

Urinary infections are a significant cause of illness in many women throughout their lives and are particularly prevalent after menopause. The bacteria that cause these infections can spread to the kidney and bloodstream, with the potential for serious complications. 

To simulate menopause in mice, scientists surgically remove their ovaries. Like menopausal women, the mice no longer make estrogen. 

To rule out the possibility that the stress of surgery affects the risk of urinary tract infections, the researchers conducted the same surgery in other mice but put the ovaries back in, maintaining their ability to make estrogen. 

When researchers gave both groups of mice urinary tract infections, the menopausal mice had higher levels of infectious bacteria in their urine. Most of the bacteria came from barrier cells, which line the interior of the bladder. These cells are the first to be infected by the bacteria. 

"When the barrier cells are lost, they need to be replaced immediately," Mysorekar says. "In the menopausal mice, we found that this replacement process was stopping short of completion. That left cells under barrier cells exposed, and they are much more vulnerable to infection." 

The menopausal mice had more bacterial reservoirs, which are pockets of infection that may provide a place for the bacteria to hide during antibiotic treatment. After treatment stops, the reservoirs can reseed the infection. 

In earlier research, Mysorekar had identified an important regulator of the barrier cell repair process. In the new study, she showed that low estrogen levels disable this regulator. 

The bladders of the menopausal mice also had higher levels of immune inflammatory compounds known as cytokines. 

"The cytokines caused inflammation that left the bladder in bad shape," Mysorekar says. "It's possible that damage caused by inflammation increases the bacteria's ability to break into bladder tissue and create reservoirs of infection." 

In the control mice, which had normal estrogen levels, cytokine levels and inflammatory damage were both significantly lower. When researchers gave the menopausal mice estrogen, their cytokine levels and inflammatory damage also decreased significantly, as did reservoirs of infectious bacteria. 

Mysorekar notes that earlier clinical trials of estrogen's usefulness against urinary infection evaluated the treatment's success by tracking levels of bacteria in the urine. The researchers say their new results suggest that bacteria levels alone may not provide a complete picture of estrogen's effectiveness against the infections. 

"If we can find ways to look at other aspects of the infectious process in humans, we may find that estrogen is more helpful than we previously realized," Mysorekar says. "We need to look for other indicators, such as cytokines in the urine, to more fully assess estrogen's potential role in treatment." 

www.vivenaturalhormones.com