WHY MUSCLE MATTERS IN PERI TO POST-MENOPAUSE
Oestrogen can help maintain and improve muscle mass, strength, and recovery from injury. Oestrogen’s effects on muscle are especially important for postmenopausal women, who are at risk of rapid frailty. The role of oestrogen in the muscles is outlined below.
Muscle strength
Oestrogen improves muscle strength by preserving the quality of contractile proteins and influencing how the myosin-heavy chain binds to actin.
Muscle mass Oestrogen helps preserve muscle mass and quality by influencing protein turnover, proteolysis, and apoptosis.
Muscle strength Oestrogen improves muscle strength by preserving the quality of contractile proteins and influencing how the myosin-heavy chain binds to actin.
Muscle recovery Oestrogen helps muscles recover from damage and atrophy. Oestrogen can also reduce inflammation and muscle damage after exercise or other injuries.
Muscle satellite cells Oestrogen helps maintain the number and function of muscle satellite cells.
Mitochondrial function Oestrogen helps maintain mitochondrial function, which is sensitive to oestrogen.
You can improve the quality of your muscle tissue in many ways – from stretching and mobility exercises such as yoga, cardiovascular exercise (aerobic and anaerobic) resistance training with your body weight against gravity, and using weights, bands and machines.
Muscle tissue has also been identified as an endocrine organ meaning it’s a player in the body’s chemical messenger system to send signals that regulate our health. Contracting muscles secrete peptides and cytokines (chemical messengers) as part of a hormone signalling network that communicates with other organs and supports healthy immune function, insulin response and increased metabolic health.
If you want to do one thing that will improve your health, body composition, and lifespan—start a dedicated resistance training program and make muscle. This is especially true for females who start with less muscle mass, are at higher risk for muscle loss with age, and suffer a greater risk for premature death when the muscle is lower than males. Women generally have less muscle than their male counterparts, especially in the upper body. We also go through the menopause transition, which research describes as a “vulnerable period for the loss of muscle mass” because of the loss of sex hormones. |