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Soy may help women's hearts if they start early

A diet rich in soy may help feminine hearts, but timing matters, finds a new study published online Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society.

Lifelong soy consumption, similar to the diet of women in Asia, produces the least atherosclerosis. Switching to a Western diet after menopause, similar to Asian migrants to North America, leads to just as much atherosclerosis as a lifelong Western diet, and switching to soy from a Western diet after menopause helps only if there isn't much atherosclerosis already.

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Alzheimer's disease and B vitamins

Taking B vitamins doesn't slow mental decline as we age, nor is it likely to prevent Alzheimer's disease, conclude Oxford University researchers who have assembled all the best clinical trial data involving 22,000 people to offer a final answer on this debate.

Elevated plasma homocysteine is a risk factor for Alzheimer disease, but the relevance of homocysteine lowering to slow the rate of cognitive ageing is uncertain.

The researchers aim was to assess the effects of treatment with B vitamins compared with placebo, when administered for several years, on composite domains of cognitive function, global cognitive function, and cognitive ageing.

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Acupuncture: the answer to hot flushes

In the 2,500 plus years that have passed since acupuncture was first used by the ancient Chinese, it has been used to treat a number of physical, mental and emotional conditions including nausea and vomiting, stroke rehabilitation, headaches, menstrual cramps, asthma, carpal tunnel, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, to name just a few. Now, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials which is being published this month in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), indicates that acupuncture can affect the severity and frequency of hot flushes for women in natural menopause.

An extensive search of previous studies evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture uncovered 104 relevant students, of which 12 studies with 869 participants met the specified inclusion criteria to be included in this current study. While the studies provided inconsistent findings on the effects of acupuncture on other menopause-related symptoms such as sleep problems, mood disturbances and sexual problems, they did conclude that acupuncture positively impacted both the frequency and severity of hot flushes.

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Weight loss and hot flush reduction

Now women have yet one more incentive to lose weight as a new study has shown evidence that behavioral weight loss can help manage menopausal hot flushes.

The pilot study, which was published online last month in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), consisted of 40 overweight or obese white and African-American women with hot flushes, which are the most prevalent symptom of menopause. In fact, more than 70% of women report hot flushes during the menopausal transition, with many of these women reporting frequent or severe hot flushes. Since women with hot flushes are at greater risk for poor quality of life, sleep problems and a depressed mood, interest in identifying methods for managing hot flushes is growing. In addition, newer data indicate that hot flushes are typically persistent, lasting an average of nine years or more.

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Sex hormones and heart disease risk in mid-life women

As hormone levels change during the transition to menopause, the quality of a woman's cholesterol carriers degrades, leaving her at greater risk for heart disease, according to research from the US. 

The first-of-its-kind evaluation was done using an advanced method to characterise cholesterol carriers in the blood.

The results call for further research to evaluate the menopause-related dynamic changes in sex hormones on the quality of cholesterol carriers over time, as well as increased emphasis on the importance of healthy diet and exercise for women undergoing menopause.

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Older mums at birth of last child and exceptional longevity

Women who had their children later in life will be happy to learn that research suggests an association between older maternal age at birth of the last child and greater odds for surviving to an unusually old age.  

In the study which used Long Life Family Study data, 311 women who survived past the oldest fifth percentile of survival (according to birth cohort-matched life tables) were identified as cases, along with 151 women who died at ages younger than the top fifth percentile of survival who were identified as controls. Looking at the cases of all 462 women, the study found a significant association for older maternal age, whereby women who had their last child beyond age 33 years had twice the odds for survival to the top fifth percentile of survival for their birth cohorts compared with women who had their last child by age 29 years. More specifically, women between the ages of 33 and 37 having their last child had an odds ratio of 2.08. The odds ratio for older women was 1.92.

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Why you need olive oil on your salad

A diet that combines unsaturated fats with nitrite-rich vegetables, such as olive oil and lettuce, can protect you from hypertension, suggests a new study led by King's College London. The findings, published in the journal PNAS, help to explain why some previous studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet can reduce blood pressure.

The Mediterranean diet typically includes unsaturated fats found in olive oil, nuts and avocados, along with vegetables like spinach, celery and carrots that are rich in nitrites and nitrates.

When these two food groups are combined, the reaction of unsaturated fatty acids with nitrogen compounds in the vegetables results in the formation of nitro fatty acids.

The study used mice to investigate the process by which these nitro fatty acids lower blood pressure, looking at whether they inhibited an enzyme known as soluble Epoxide Hydrolase which regulates blood pressure.

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Premature ovarian failure - genetic cause

The disorder, affects about 1 percent of women and results in infertility due to premature ovarian failure.

The study demonstrates for the first time that mutation in STAG3 gene is the major cause of human fertility disorders as it provokes a loss of function of the protein it encodes.

STAG3 encodes a meiosis-specific subunit of the cohesin ring, the biological process through which, from a diploid somatic cell, a haploid cell or gamete is produced. Cohesins are protein complexes that bind two straps of DNA and are implicated in its repair, replication and recombination, as well as in its chromosomal stability, transcription regulation, stem-cell pluripotency, and cell differentiation.

Alberto M. Pendás, CSIC researcher at the Cancer Research Center (USAL/CSIC), states: "Our work enables us to causally relate mutations in a gene of the cohesin complex with human infertility. It also demonstrates for the first time in humans that POF and azoospermia, a disorder that impedes normal sperm production, are probably the two faces of the same genetic disease".

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Postmenopausal calcium and vitamin D improve cholesterol

Calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause can improve women's cholesterol profiles. And much of that effect is tied to raising vitamin D levels, finds a new study from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) published online in Menopause.[1]

Whether calcium or vitamin D can indeed improve cholesterol levels has been debated. And studies of women taking the combination could not separate the effects of calcium from those of vitamin D on cholesterol. But this study, led by NAMS Board of Trustees member Peter F. Schnatz, DO, NCMP, is helping to settle those questions because it looked both at how a calcium and vitamin D supplement changed cholesterol levels and how it affected blood levels of vitamin D in postmenopausal women.

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Menopause for Medical Students

Essential menopause curriculum for medical students 
Position Statement from European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS)

The menopause, or the cessation of the menstrual cycle, is the result of ovarian aging and is a natural event experienced by most women in their late 40s or early 50s. With increasing longevity the menopause can now be considered to be a midlife event. Thus managing postmenopausal health is a key issue for all health professionals, not just gynaecologists.

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