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Menopause brings with it many unwelcome side effects for a lot of women. Not the least of these is a tendency to put on some extra weight, particularly around the middle. The phenomenon known as "middle age spread" is sometimes accepted as a normal reaction to aging. Being overweight after menopause is a risky business as there may be many bothersome and dangerous effects involved.
Your body weight affects both your physical and your mental health in many ways. Before you decide to just give in to this tendency to gain weight and live with it, you should consider the additional risks to your well-being. Stories about the risks of being overweight have been all over the news lately, so you know that at any stage in life it is important not to let your weight get out of hand. After menopause, however, the risks become even greater. Your weight ties in with other risk factors in sometimes unexpected ways.
Ironically, women who are overweight before menopause have a slightly lower risk of getting breast cancer, but after menopause the opposite is true. A recent study presented in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women who gained weight as they aged increased their risk over breast cancer after menopause by as much as 45 percent. But women who only gain weight after menopause are not off the hook either. A weight gain of 22 pounds or more after menopause carries with it an 18 percent increase in the risk of developing breast cancer. The good news is that if you have gained weight, it's not too late to correct the problem. Women who lost their excess weight also reduced their breast cancer risk.
Menopause often causes a woman's blood pressure to rise. Higher blood pressure can increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes, so it's not something you want to develop if you can avoid it. Being overweight is a risk factor which tends to increase blood pressure. Your larger body contains more blood vessels, and your heart must work harder to pump the blood through them. This means that your blood pressure increases with your weight. Taking off the extra pounds will give your heart some much-needed relief.
After menopause, the risk of suffering a heart attack increases significantly for women. Several studies have shown a link between reduced estrogen levels and the incidence of heart attack. Excess weight is another risk factor in heart attacks. This is true at any age, but it becomes all the more dangerous after menopause when your risk level is higher to begin with. Your heart must work harder as you gain weight and the strain can simply be too much. Reducing your weight will reduce this risk.
Are you gaining weight because you don't exercise? Being overweight and inactive leaves you at a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and other diseases. Simply working some exercise into your routine will not only reduce your risk factors, it will help to reduce your weight. Combined with a healthy diet, physical activity is the most important factor in maintaining a healthy weight and combating the risks of menopause.
For some women, the symptoms of menopause go beyond mood swings into a debilitating battle with depression. One of the ways you can help yourself to recover from depression is to do things which improve your self-image. Struggling into clothing that has become too tight, and not liking what you see when you look in the mirror, can feed your depression. Doing something to actively lose the extra weight and give you something positive to focus on will do wonders for your mood.
There are many reasons to fight against that "middle age spread." If you are lucky enough to not have the extra weight yet, you'll have to stay motivated to be active, eat healthy and keep your weight where it should be. For those who have already gained weight, there's more effort involved in working it off. A program of exercise combined with a proper diet including lots of whole foods, fruits and vegetables will get you headed in the right direction. It's never too late to improve your health and the benefits could be life-saving.
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