Tag Archives: Women

December 9, 2022 · 11:14 pm

Do women age differently from men?

The life expectancy of women is significantly higher than that of men. However, women also suffer more often from age-related diseases and adverse drug reactions. “Our long-term goal is to make men live as long as women and also women as healthy as men in late life. But for that, we need to understand where the differences come from,” explains Yu-Xuan Lu, one of the leading authors of the study.

Rapamycin extends lifespan only in female flies

The researchers gave the anti-ageing drug rapamycin to male and female fruit flies to study the effect on the different sexes. Rapamycin is a cell growth inhibitor and immune regulator that is normally used in cancer therapy and after organ transplantations. They found that rapamycin extended the lifespan and slowed age-related intestinal pathologies in female flies but not in males.

Healthier life due to more autophagy

The researchers observed that rapamycin increased autophagy – the cell’s waste disposal process – in the female intestinal cells. Male intestinal cells, however, already seem to have a high basal autophagy activity, which cannot be further increased by rapamycin. The scientists could also see this effect of rapamycin in mice. Female mice showed increased autophagy activity after treatment with rapamycin. “Previous studies found that females had greater responses to rapamycin on lifespan extension than did males in mice, we now uncover an underlying mechanism of these differences using flies”, says Yu-Xuan Lu.

Sex-specific, personalised treatments

“Sex can be a decisive factor for the effectiveness of anti-aging drugs. Understanding the processes that are sex-specific and determine response to therapeutics will improve the development of personalized treatments”, explains Linda Partridge, senior author of the study.

Stress from work and social interactions put women at higher coronary heart disease risk

Psychosocial stress – typically resulting from difficulty coping with challenging environments – may work synergistically to put women at significantly higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to a study by researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

The study specifically suggests that the effects of job strain and social strain — the negative aspect of social relationships — on women is a powerful one-two punch. Together they are associated with a 21% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. Job strain occurs when a woman has inadequate power in the workplace to respond to the job’s demands and expectations.

The study also found that high-stress life events, such as a spouse’s death, divorce/separation or physical or verbal abuse, as well as social strain, were each independently linked with a 12% and 9% higher risk of coronary heart disease, respectively.

The Drexel study used data from a nationally representative sample of 80,825 postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, which tracked participants from 1991 to 2015, to find better methods of preventing cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis in women. In the current follow-up study, Drexel researchers evaluated the effect of psychosocial stress from job strain, stressful life events and social strain (through a survey), and associations among these forms of stress, on coronary heart disease.

Pages: 1 2

Women, exercise and longevity

Women who can exercise vigorously are at significantly lower risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other causes. The research was presented 7 December at EuroEcho 2019, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

Study author Dr Jesús Peteiro, of University Hospital A Coruña, Spain advised women: “Exercise as much as you can. Fitness protects against death from any cause.”

Exercise is good for health and longevity, but information on women is scarce. Women generally live longer than men, so dedicated studies are needed. This study examined exercise capacity and heart function during exercise in women and their links with survival. The study included 4,714 adult women referred for treadmill exercise echocardiography because of known or suspected coronary artery disease. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under aging, Exercise, exercise benefits, senior women, successful aging, women's fitness

Tagged as aging, Exercise, Exercise Benefits, senior women, successful aging, Women

May 19, 2014 · 6:17 am

What Can I Do To Prevent Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease that affects the entire world population. The International Osteoporosis Foundation reports:

•   Worldwide, osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures annually, resulting in an osteoporotic fracture every 3 seconds.
•   Osteoporosis is estimated to affect 200 million women worldwide – approximately one-tenth of women aged 60, one-fifth of women aged 70, two-fifths of women aged 80 and two-thirds of women aged 90.
•   Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan.

“Men don’t suffer from osteoporosis as often as women, but they are indeed vulnerable. The International Osteoporosis Foundation says that the lifetime risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture in men over the age of 50 is 30%, similar to the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer.” That quote is from my post Are men vulnerable to osteoporosis as well as women?

Here are some steps you can take to prevent osteoporisis:

1. Calcium and Vitamin D are key. These minerals build strong, dense bones.

2. Exercise regularly. You need to do weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise. Walking, dancing and running all help to build strong bones.

3. Eat fruits and veggies that have potassium and magnesium to help neutralize the acids that draw minerals out of the bones.

4. Quit smoking and reduce alcohol consumption.

To read further on this disease, check out the following posts:

What are Some foods to protect against Osteoporosis?

An Early Sign of Osteoporosis?

How to Beat Osteoporosis – Harvard

Is walking as effective as running?

Tony

“Women, Food, and God” vs. “Skinny Thinking” What Do You Think?

Laura Katleman-Prue, author of “Skinny Thinking” sent us this post earlier this week in response to a recent Oprah interview. I caught part of the show myself but not enough to comment on this debate, so you be the judge of which approach would best suit you, your body and your needs.
John

I just watched Oprah interview Geneen Roth about her new book, “Women, Food, and God” (written for men as well as women). Oprah experienced many breakthroughs reading the book and is recommending it to anyone who has ever struggled with weight. It seems that however Oprah goes, so goes the country! Now that the spotlight is healing eating issues and Geneen Roth’s philosophy, I would like to take this opportunity to share to compare and contrast Skinny Thinking with the principles in Women, Food, and God.

There is a lot that I like about Geneen Roth’s approach, and it has clearly worked for many people. We’re all different and different strategies work for different people. I love her focus on kindness, understanding why you are turning to food when you are not hungry, and feeling your feelings (one of my kung fus). These are ideas that I included in my Skinny Thinking book as well.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must also confess that I spent over 20 years intermittently following Geneen’s principles and gaining weight every time I did. I thought that the weight would eventually come off, if I follow the program correctly. But even after several years at a stretch of listening to my body and letting it guide my eating, the numbers on my scale continued to go up not down.

I loved the idea of listening to my body and allowing its wisdom to guide my eating. The only problem was that it didn’t work for me. I did stop yo-yoing but I wasn’t comfortable being heavy, nor was I willing to accept being overweight for the rest of my life. I always hoped that I could find a better way for myself, one that allowed me to stay thin effortlessly and stop worrying about what I ate. The Skinny Thinking five steps were my answer.
Continue reading →