Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Did you put on weight after menopause without any change in your lifestyle?
Did people tell you that you were probably eating more and exercising less without realizing it?
Did you think maybe you were going nuts?
Well, now a study has shown that this weight gain may not be your ...
5 Health Problems Caused by Drinking Too Much Alcohol 
What Your Feet Say About Your Health 
Top 8 Low-Carb Mistakes 
The Facts on Diabetic Neuropathy 
thanx for the interesting post- made me think of 2 things:
1- megace, an appetite stimulant, is a synthetic progesterone- it works, but with a caveat that it builds fat mass rather than muscle, probably related to the metabolism u mention
2- estrogen seems to serve a cardioprotective effect (viz. raising HDL?) and so altered estrogen levels raise risk concerns for heart disease, perhaps covarying with the weight status u mention
1. Well, not too many type 2s need an appetite stimulant (Grin). But the fact that it causes fat gain is interesting.
2. It's known that cardiac risks go up with menopause. But adding back estrogens also increases risks.
I always try to figure out the evolutionary reason behind changes. Seems to me, there's probably a good reason older women gain fat. For one thing, it protects brittle bones from breaking. Also, some estrogen is produced by fat after menopause. And maybe if women are fatter, they'll be happy to stay by the fireside watching the grandchildren instead of joining the younger women in their foraging expeditions.
The trick, I think, is to accept mild changes but not to let them go to extremes. If you always weighed 96 pounds and now you weigh 105 pounds, I wouldn't worry about it. And I think it's important not to take iron, as some people think lower iron levels pre-menopause is what makes men more apt to have heart attacks.