The Health Dangers of Declining Estrogen levels in Women: Exercise Helps!

The Health Dangers of Declining Estrogen levels in Women: Exercise Helps!

A review of Metabolic Dysfunction Under Reduced Estrogen Levels: Looking to Exercise for Prevention from the Journal of Exercise and Sports Sciences, October 2012, volume 40, issue 4.

                When the mortality rate, from natural causes, of a premenopausal woman is compared to a man of the same age the woman comes out less likely to die from health-related problems.  However, this advantage disappears as women age and is almost nonexistent post-menopause.   Recent research is showing that declining estrogen levels are a considerable part for this loss of protection.  Estrogen levels can decline for many reasons other than menopause; poor diet, stress, lack of exercise, hysterectomy, and other surgeries are just a few reasons that estrogen levels can decrease before the onset of menopause.  Unfortunately, lowered levels of estrogen can cause potentially serious alterations to skeletal muscle, bone, cardiovascular, and brain functions.  Most often these problems are treated through estrogen or hormone replacement therapy.   While this remains the most common treatment within the general public many clinical research trials are moving away from hormonal based therapy and looking for alternatives.  This is because there is an emerging body of evidence that suggests hormonal therapy may lead to an increased risk of breast cancer and stroke.

                So how does a decrease in estrogen levels affect the body?  To begin with, there is an increase in body fat levels, specifically throughout the abdominal area.  Generally speaking, and within women who have high levels of estrogen, the female body tends to store body fat in the lower parts of the body while men tend to store it in the abdominal area.  Body fat stored throughout the abdominal area is referred to as visceral fat and is far more dangerous than body fat stored within other parts of the body.  This is because body fat stored within the abdominal area surrounds all of the vital internal organs.  It secretes chemicals that disrupt the natural functions of these organs and will eventually cause major problems up to and including organ failure.  Simply put, this decline in estrogen levels combined with an increase in the presence of visceral fat may alter the hormonal levels within the female body making the woman, hormonally speaking, more of a man than a woman.  Good-bye extra natural health defense benefits through estrogen and hello shorter male life expectancy.  Among the primary causes is an increased risk to insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance.  Both are precursors to diabetes, and while estrogen levels remain high, women are less likely to develop them.

                It is important to note that as estrogen levels decline, a women’s body fat may increase without seeing a major change in the numbers on the weight scale.  As estrogen levels decline so does the ability of the female body to preserve and maintain muscle mass.  As muscle mass declines, metabolism slows down, making easier to gain body fat.  During the years of menopause, without regular exercise to offset the decline in estrogen, a woman can drastically alter her body with an increase in body fat without realizing it because the fat increase tends to happen at about the same rate as the loss of muscle mass.  This results in little to no change with the numbers on the scale.  Thus, a vicious cycle begins, that becomes harder and harder to reverse.

                If this cycle continues long enough that morbid obesity becomes a women’s body another serious complication can arise.  While this does seem to happen in men it is far more common in obese women, leading researchers to believe there is some correlation between declining estrogen and high increases in body fat.  This condition is referred to as Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.  As body fat levels increase to the point of making a person obese the body loses its ability to regulate blood glucose levels, first through insulin sensitivity, then insulin resistance, and finally diabetes.  In similar fashion, obesity caused hormonal changes may shut down the body’s ability to convert stored body fat into energy that can be used.  During exercise and/or with dietary adjustments the body will break down fat cells and release them into the blood as free fatty acids.  These FFAs are transported to the liver where they are converted to blood glucose which can be taken to the working muscles and other organs to be used as energy.  When a person has NFLD the function of the liver is disrupted so that it cannot properly convert the FFAs into blood glucose.  It is called Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease because it is the same liver functionality of someone who has been a lifelong alcoholic.  Yes ladies, declining estrogen levels combined with excessive weight gain may cause you to have the liver of an alcoholic even if you have never had a drink in your life.

                It needs to be understood that estrogen therapy or other hormonal therapy may be losing ground as a safe and effective method of treating low estrogen levels.  Exercise and healthy eating may prevent or help treat these problems.  It is important to note that even among postmenopausal obese women regular exercise led to an improvement in NFLD.  Some women lost weight through diet alone and also showed improvement, although to a lesser extent.  However, only the women who exercised regularly saw marked increases in the levels of estrogen, and consequently, better improvements in overall health.  Most women in this study saw improvements in estrogen levels with longer duration exercise.  Because of this, in the beginning, duration is more important than intensity of exercise.  However, for long term, permanent weight loss intensity must also increase.  For the obese person the first two months of an exercise program should focus on building a base level of endurance through cardiovascular exercise; treadmill, bike, elliptical or any other piece of cardio equipment.  Focus creating the endurance to exercise 30-45 minutes without needing a break.  Once this is accomplished begin to incorporate weight training exercises while focusing on increasing the intensity, or pace, of cardiovascular exercise.  Weight loss happens best at high intensity levels so make it a long term goal to focus on going faster not further.