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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.

Muscle cell studies show that when researchers take estrogen away from animals, their ability to regenerate muscle stem cells can drop 30 to 60 per cent. Muscle biopsies in women during the menopause transition show the same thing. A 2021 study found that women in late perimenopause had 10 per cent less appendicular (i.e., arms and legs) skeletal muscle mass than those in early perimenopause.

Further, late perimenopausal and post-menopausal women also had a greater likelihood of having sarcopenia (involuntary muscle loss) than early perimenopausal or premenopausal women. It’s not about working harder but being smarter in how you do it. Dr Lisa Mosconi states that for women over 45 mild to moderate exercise will have more benefit than intense workouts. Phew, because my body certainly is slower and gets tired more easily.

Lifting weights and using resistance bands is a very effective way and be added to your yoga routine. In addition, adding in more balance poses, holding poses for longer, ladder sequences and repeating are three key ways to build muscle.

Muscle and Health

Muscle is health protective on many levels. For one, it allows you to be more active, which we know is good for health and longevity. It also pulls glucose from the bloodstream without the help of insulin, so helps manage blood sugar levels and lowers the risk for insulin resistance.

Those metabolic health benefits may be a big reason why skeletal muscle is so good for your heart. When it comes to cardiovascular health, women should prioritize making muscle over losing weight and/or fat. A 2021 study found that women with high muscle mass are less likely to die from heart disease and that fat mass was not as big of a heart disease risk in women as in men.

Regular muscle-strengthening exercises like resistance training have also been linked to a lower risk of cancer and diabetes. Research shows that strength training can significantly increase fat metabolism during and after training and reduce visceral (deep belly) fat.

Muscle loss also reduces bone density, which is something you can’t afford as a woman. Both tend to decrease more rapidly during the menopause transition, therefore women need to make and maintain muscle throughout their lives to preserve their skeletal health.