Study Suggests Walking, Yoga Help Deal With Menopause
04-05-2007 11:25 AM

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania --  A little exercise, even just
a long walk, may go a long way toward helping women feel
better while going through menopause.

Women involved in a regular exercise program reported better
quality of life during menopause compared with those who did
not exercise, according a Penn State University study.

The 164 volunteers were primarily sedentary before the four-
month study led by Steriani Elavsky, a Penn State
kinesiology professor.

They were divided into three groups.
One group met 3 times a week to walk for an hour, another
group gathered for 90-minute yoga sessions twice a week,
and a third group didn't exercise.

Results were published in a recent issue of Annals of
Behavioral Medicine.

"It's a nice reaffirmation that exercise is beneficial for lots of
different things," said Dr. Charles Castle, a Lancaster-based
gynecologist and a member of the board of trustees for the
Pennsylvania Medical Society.

"From the standpoint of patients, part of the difficulty is
finding something you like to do," said Castle, who is also
vice chairman of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American
College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Menopause, which typically occurs between the ages of 45 and
55, is when a woman stops menstruating. Roughly 1.5 million
women reach menopause each year in the United States, and 80
to 85 percent typically experience symptoms such as
irritability, mood swings, hot flashes and night sweats.

While mood and outlook improved for the exercisers, the
study found mixed results when it came to the latter two
symptoms. Half of all the women in the study reported
improvement in hot flashes and night sweats, Elavsky said,
and most of those were in the exercise groups.

However, the study didn't account for what stage of menopause
the women may have been experiencing, which suggests some
women's symptoms may have lessened on their own.

It was also unclear whether their actual physical symptoms
decreased, or whether women were coping with them better
because they were in a better mood following exercise,
Elavsky said.

She noted, though, that her results differed from previous
studies that concluded exercise doesn't help hot flashes.

Women who finished the four-month walking program in
Elavsky's study reported the most improvement in mood and
quality of life, while those performing yoga reported
similar but smaller improvements, the study said. Walking
and yoga were chosen because one is aerobic and the other is
non-aerobic.

Dr. Lila Nachtigall, director of the Women's Wellness
Program at New York University Medical Center, said the
bottom is "exercise is always good." She talks to women at
all ages about healthier lifestyle changes, including diet
and exercise

"It does help mood and outlook," she said.

"There's very little downside in some good exercise."

Donna Teper, a nurse and menopause practitioner at Northwest
Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, just
started a new support group for women with menopause. She
said she tries to stress that women take a broad approach to
cope with menopause, including changes in lifestyle and
nutrition.

Teper said exercise can improve sleep, which in turn gives
women more rest, helping them better cope with menopause.