Originally published December 18 2005
Women's health expert explains importance of menopause research
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Forbes.com talks about frontline issues of women's health with Jay Kaplan, head of the section of comparative medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Traditional thinking holds that a woman is protected from heart disease and osteoporosis until she goes through menopause.
But new research with monkeys questions that belief, and suggests that the time to start protecting your heart and guarding against bone loss is during perimenopause, or preferably, even earlier.
"Most women think they don't have to worry much about chronic health problems until perimenopause or menopause.
But there's a high-risk trajectory that women can get on in their reproductive years that sets the stage for later problems," said Jay Kaplan, head of the section of comparative medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Kaplan said his hypothesis is that the quality of ovarian function in the premenopausal period can contribute to your health status later in life.
During perimenopause, a woman's body starts making less of certain hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, and she begins to lose the ability to become pregnant.
In previous monkey studies that Kaplan had conducted, he found that stress reduced estrogen levels and began to cause the buildup of plaque in the blood vessels.
The constant stress caused by this harassment reduces estrogen levels in subordinate monkeys, and reduces their fertility levels as well, he said.
Hormone therapy results from the Women's Health Initiative were disappointing -- the study found hormone-replacement therapy given to menopausal women could increase the risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke, rather than prevent illness.
In another monkey study, Kaplan treated estrogen-deficient monkeys with estrogen before they entered menopause.
Doing this helped prevent plaque deposits from building up on blood vessel walls, thus protecting against cardiovascular disease.
Trials of hormone therapy on younger women are currently under way to see if early treatment of estrogen loss can help maintain cardiovascular health, according to Kaplan.
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