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Hormone Therapy plus Physical Activity
reduce Belly Fat, Body Fat Percentage after
Menopause
Newswise — 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.
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