INSPO Fitness Journal July 2017

All of this is doubly true for women,
whose hormonal changes bring an additional
set of changes and challenges.
“For women, it is the mid-life transition
that matters most because the hormonal
changes brought on by natural and early
menopause can be a catalyst for depression,
heart disease, osteoporosis and post-menopause
obesity,” she warns.
But the good news, especially for women,
is that WHO’s Healthy Ageing Team, led by
Professor John Beard, does not recommend
the gruelling fitness or nutritional regimes
typically marketed to women today.
“It’s a new type of exercise that matters –
tai chi, yoga, pilates and resistance-weights.
Leave the ‘go hard, go home’ cardio mantra
for the younger age groups and males. Women
in their late 40s and 50s have enough
inflammation going on with menopause,
which can be a cocktail of metabolic chaos
on its own,” says Wendy.
“What is now recognised is that if the
worst symptoms are not managed well
through lifestyle changes, post-menopausal
health statistics will climb in this important
demographic.”
Professor Wendy Brown, who pioneered
the Australian Longitudinal Study on
Women’s Health (ALSWH), also says that the
menopause mid-life transition matters for
women after tracking thousands of women
over 20 years.
The oldest participants are now in their
90s, the youngest coming on board are just
turning 40. When it comes to understanding
long-term health and lifestyle of women, this
research has been ground-breaking. Professor
Brown and her team make a number of suggestions
for mid-life women to take heed of:
1
Menopause matters more than once
thought. The hormonal changes brought
on from both natural and early menopause,
can cause a cocktail of hormonal and metabolic
chaos that can set some women up for
post-menopause disaster.
Post-menopause depression, heart disease,
osteoporosis, fibromyalgia and obesity are
the hallmarks of unhealthy ageing for many
women.
2
Move over Jane Fonda. We loved you
when you arrived with ‘the burn’, but
now that we are ageing, it’s a new type of
exercise that matters. Leave the ‘go-hard,
go-home’ cardio mantra to the younger agegroups.
Sore, inflamed joints are already escorting
women into aches and pains that quickly get
drowned with anti-inflammatories, preventing
them from being active.
Women in their late 40s and 5’s have
enough inflammation going on with menopause
(see point 1). The ‘hard-helmet’ caps
that protect the ends of the DNA, called the
‘telomeres’ need to be healed, not hurt and
too much high-intensity exercise can damage
them more.
As well as being an exercise physiologist
and gerontologist, Professor Maria
Fiatarone- Singh is a world expert in the
physiology of health and ageing. She knows
more about the effects of too much exercise
on telomere function than most.
Women need more support with all they
3 do. The 50-55-year-old cohort of women
are constantly in and out of activity according
to the ALSWH.
They blame this on having to work full
time, look after elderly parents, teenage kids
at home and the fact they don’t have enough
energy. For many, this means less activity
and more sitting. This isn’t good for their
long-term health.
Supporting women at this stage of life
with their work-life balance is important to
their healthy ageing and employers could
possibly do more to understand this time of
their life in workplace wellbeing.
4
Strength training matters, so too does
balance training. Tai Chi, yoga, Pilates,
resistance Wweights. They are all activities
that matter in mid-life.
However, according to world population
health experts, these activities need to be
more accessible.
In China, more equipment and classes
held in parks have been the answer for years,
but so too has been the CULTURAL expectation
that you can age more healthily when
you participate in these activities. That’s
what is missing in public health messages
down-under, say the experts.
Food is your medicine and it’s not all
5 about the adoration for Paleo. The key
is Mediterannean (without the pasta and
processed grains). Some protein, but not too
much and a lot more anti-ageing, anti-oxidant-rich
vegetables. Ditch the ‘traditional’
meat, dairy, potatoes and alcohol-laden New
Zealand diet. It’s too acidic and does you no
favours as you age.
Despite the increasing knowledge we have
around lifestyle practices and healthy ageing,
the hard part for people is turning intention
into action. Population health researcher,
Professor Abby King works out of Silicon
Valley. She says the hardest thing to change
is people’s beliefs about what will make a
difference to their health.
But the technology is there to disseminate
the right messages to today’s boomers
through the delivery of personalised,
technology interventions. She’s keen on
this, especially with women who are more
disadvantaged and who often have the worst
problems in older age.
She is working with technology companies
to provide tailored interventions to
women in poorer communities through
‘Carmen’, the multi-lingual health-coach
who isn’t a real person but turns up on the
computer in the library or hall.
With the old adage that it’s ‘never too
late’, Professor King, says that for women,
becoming healthier and more active with age
happens when health professionals ‘talk to
the whole village’.
WENDY SWEET is completing her Doctoral Studies on women’s healthy ageing and
physical activity. She has a Master’s degree in Lifestyle Behaviour-Change, is an ex-nurse
and pioneered Personal Training in New Zealand. She is also the co-founder of www.
mymenopausetransformation.com – an on-line program to support women through their
menopause transition into their healthy ageing.
INSPO – FITNESS JOURNAL JULY 2017
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