Losing excess weight Eating a low-fat diet full of vegetables, fruits and whole grains seems to help reduce or eliminate the symptoms of menopause, according to new surveys.
"Women who lost weight on a low-fat diet reduced hot flashes and night sweats," says researcher Bette J. Caan, DPH, Senior Research Scientist at Kaiser Permanent California .
Even some women who followed the diet and did not lose weight reported less menopausal symptoms, Caan tells WebMD, although it says it could be a chance of chance.
"The biggest reduction in symptoms was in women who lost weight and were on the diet," she says.
The study is published in the journal in Menopause.
Weight Loss Calculator With Calorie Intake - Can Weight Loss Cool Hot Flashes?
In other searches, experts have discovered women with a larger body size, including a higher body mass index (BMI) or a higher percent of fat Body. , have more frequent or more serious menopause symptoms.
For the new study, Caan and her team evaluated women who participated in the dietary modification initiative of the woman's health initiative. This study included almost 49,000 women with 40% after a low-fat diet and the others serving as a comparison group.
The study was designed to look at the effect of a low-fat diet in heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer and fractures in postmenopausal women.
Altogether, Caan and her team concentrated on more than 17,000 women who participated in the trial. At the beginning of the study, they were 50 to 79 years of age. None was in hormonal therapy.
Those in the low diet diet group ate only 20% of their fat calories, had five portions of fruits and vegetables, and had six portions of whole grains daily.
The researchers rated the symptoms like:
- I take, not affecting the usual activities
- moderate, affecting the usual activities a little
- Severus, affecting activities so they could not be made
At all, 26% of women had hot flashes at the beginning of the study, with most reports. Twenty-seven percent had night sweats, most of them soft.
After a year, those who followed a low-fat diet were three times more likely to lose weight - set as 5 pounds or more than those who did not lose weight.
The comparison group was more than twice as likely to gain weight to those who follow the low fat diet.
Those who followed the low fat diet were more likely to get rid of their menopause symptoms after a year, Caan found.
If they had moderate or severe symptoms and lose 22 pounds or more, they probably eliminated their symptoms, it says. If they had light symptoms and lose 10 or more pounds, they could also eliminate their symptoms, says Caan.
then came a surprise discovery. Women in low fat diet that really earned more than 10 pounds also reported fewer symptoms.
"These findings suggest that weight loss and healthy dietary change could help reduce or eliminate [menopausal symptoms]," she says.
Even so, Caan says, the focus must be in the discovery of losing weight on a low-fat diet reduced the risk of hot flash.
"The biggest reduction in symptoms was in women who lost weight and were on the diet," Caan says WebMD.
Women in the low fat diet that did not lose weight, but they had less hot flashes may have reduced their body fat, says Rabin.
Women in the low-fat diet group also received information on how to overcome obstacles to behavioral changes and control desires, says Alison Huang, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California, are Francisco. She also analyzed the discoveries.
"The [mental] and behavioral aspects of the program may have made it easier for women to deal with their symptoms or have changed their subjective perceptions of their symptoms, so they no longer realized their symptoms as being so severe or disturbing, "says WebMD.
until more searches are in, Rabin says a take-home message is clear of the new research. "Not only will weight loss reduce your risk of [heart disease and stroke] and lengthen your life, you can make you feel more comfortable while passing through the menopausal transition and beyond," she says.
