Walk away from those night sweats!

In a study published last month in the Journal Menopause, a group of Finnish women reported fewer menopausal symptoms after a 24 week trial of aerobic training.


We have seen that exercise:

• REDUCES THE NUMBER OF BREAST CANCERS
• promotes weight loss
• helps maintain weight
• decreases visceral fat
• reduces bone loss
• reduces depression and anxiety
• enhances cognitive function
• improves cardiac risk factors (lowers BP, triglycerides, LDL, etc)

Dr. Ritta Luoto, who has published other articles showing the benefit of exercise, recently reported a randomized controlled trial of the effect of exercise on menopausal symptoms.

She divided 176 sedentary postmenopausal Finnish women, ages 45-63 years, into two groups.  One did aerobic exercise 50 minutes 4 times a week (walking at least 2 of those days) and the other (control) group went to lectures.  Amazingly 88% completed the 24 week study.  They all agreed to twice daily cell phone conversations about symptoms.

At baseline, 55% reported night sweats, 27.5% reported mood swings, 22.5% reported irritability and depression, and other symptoms to a lesser degree.

The effect on mood swings and irritability were the most impressive, dropping by half in the exercising group.  Night sweats also decreased over time.  Exercise is medicine for menopausal symptoms!

To learn more about what aerobic exercise might be right for you, consult with your physicians, particularly if you are just starting or find more information at http://www.greatist.com/fitness/new-acsm-exercise-guidelines/ from the American College of Sports Medicine.

Not only fewer breast cancers, but feel better, too!

Together we can prevent 75,000 breast cancer cases each year!