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Pushing yourself is harder if you are a woman over the age of 50.
“I would rather sit on the couch at home and watch re-runs.”
“I would run on the treadmill maybe for, like, two, three minutes and then I would walk two, three minutes.Now it’s down to one or two minutes.”
Physical activities seem to decrease for women entering menopause.Researchers at the University of Missouri have identified a link between estrogen and dopamine levels in the brain.
As women age, their ovaries produce less estrogen.Assistant professor Victoria Vieira-Potter believes the loss of estrogen in postmenopausal women leads to a drop in dopamine,a chemical that sends signals to the pleasure or reward center in the brain.The result, older women are more likely to gain weight even if they are not eating more.And that puts them at risk for heart disease and diabetes.
“They are not consuming more calories,but rather, there is just a very small drop in physical activity that happens that is not their fault.They are actually changes that might occur in the brain that drive this reduce to motivation to be physically active.”
Other scientists involved in this research are looking at other reasons why older women may be less interested in being physically active.One group is looking at muscles that support the bladder and rectum, the pelvic floor, Dawn Lowe spoke to VOA by Skype.
“We think about leg muscles becoming weaker with age in men and women, but the pelvic floor is also a muscle.So there is growing evidence that that muscle essentially becomes weak with age as well.There’s growing evidence that, particularly in women, estrogen can affect how muscle works.”
A drop in estrogen could mean a woman loses some control over her bladder or bowel, particularly when she’s exercising.Scientists are finding this is another reason older women don’t exercise.
Lowe says over the next several years, we can expect to learn a lot about women’s health and how it changes through the menopausal years.
Carol Pearson, VOA news, Washington.
