Menopause Articles
Menopause and Aquatic Therapy
Menopause is the decrease in levels of estrogen in your body. Estrogen keeps your cholestrol in check and protects bones. By having a loss of estrogen, you may be experiencing a decresase in bone density, higher cholesterol levels, and increases risks of insomnia.
Insomnia and Aquatic Therapy
Insomnia is a sleeping disorder where one experiences the inability to sleep. Estrogen is a sleep-maintaining hormone. It is common to have an estrogen deficiency in perimenopause and menopause and when your body is not producing enough natural estrogen, your ability to get a full night's sleep suffers as a result. Estrogen is not the only contributer to insomnia. Insomnia can also be cause by a lack of exercise. Aquatic exercise is one of the easiest and best ways to get your energy out. You burn about 40% more calories due to the hydrostatic pressure. This means you will be able to get your good nights rest a lot easier and in a low impact environment, so you won't be hurting your joints either.
Bone Density and Aquatic therapy
Bone density is how thick your bones are. This contributes to how strong your bones are. In menopause, estrogen deficiency induces spongy bone loss (the top or bottom of the bon) as well as cortical bone loss (the bone in between the two ends of spongy bone). Highly increased bone resorption in spongy bone leads to general bone loss and destruction of local architecture because of penetrative resorption and microfractures. In cortical bone the first response of estrogen withdrawal is enhanced endocortical resorption. Later, also intracortical porosity increases. These lead to decreased bone mass, disturbed architecture, and reduced bone strength. Aquatic therapy helps prevent bone density loss. As you work out, the impact of each step you take sends signals to your brain that say, "Hey, my bones need to be stronger because there is more weight being pressed against my bones." Even though the pool is a low impact environment, it still helps to prevent bone density loss. Another contribution to bone density is how much muscle is on each bone. The more muscle on your bone means more weight. By using aquatic therapy, the hydrostatic pressure in the water causes muscles to be worked in more ways than one. if you were to run on one of our treadmills, you would notice that it feels different than running on land. This is because when you use your muscles in the water, all of the muscles on the front and back of your legs are getting worked about 40% more. This increases the microtears in your muscles (a good thing), which helps build muscles. Therefore, aquatic therapy will not only help you prevent bone density loss.
Cholestrol and Aquatic Therapy
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is produced by the liver and also ingested with certain foods. Cholesterol is required by the body to make vitamin D after the skin is exposed to UV light from the sun and to produce some hormones, build cell walls and help you digest fats. Your liver produces enough cholesterol to meet the needs of your body every day. Cholesterol is also found in foods that originate from animal sources, such as meat, eggs and whole-fat dairy products. High levels of cholesterol in the blood stream can increase your risk of coronary artery disease, cardiovascular disease, stroke and heart attack. Some of the factors that lead to high cholesterol are obesity, gender, heredity, diet and age. Declining estrogen levels during menopause and peri-menopause can lead to an increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol. This increase in the bad cholesterol and concurrent decrease in HDL (good) cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. Estrogen appears to have a protective effect on the vasculature of the body against diseases. It stimulates the release of nitric oxide and decreases the contraction of smooth muscle cells. This relationship appears to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels while estrogen levels remain high during a woman's childbearing years.Once a woman reaches perimenopause or menopause, the American Heart Association states that some women benefit from postmenopausal hormone therapy to treat osteoporosis and other medical conditions. However, they do not recommend use exclusively to prevent cardiovascular disease. Regular exercise can help improve your cholesterol levels, especially aquatic exercise. Aquatic exercise not only will reduce your high cholesterol, but it will also decrease your risk of cardiovascular diseases. The hydrostatic pressure decreases your risk of cardiovascular disease by giving support to vessels and arteries and increasing circulation of blood thorugh the body. With your doctor's OK, work up to 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day. Take a brisk daily walk on our underwater treadmills. A bike ride on our underwater bikes. Use our underwater ellipticals. Swim laps. Find an exercise buddy or join an aerobic exercise class. And you don't need to get all 30 to 60 minutes in one exercise session. If you can squeeze in three to six 10-minute intervals of exercise, you'll still get some benefits. If you are not doing any exercise at all right now, try even 15 minutes of exercise a day several days of the week. Some exercise is much better than no exercise.