Top in women’s health: Diet improves menopause symptoms; bone loss after hormone therapy

Research shows that lifestyle modifications, particularly diet quality, can lead to cardiometabolic health benefits for women during the menopause transition.

Better diet quality can contribute to a healthy gut microbiome, which can reduce metabolic changes observed during the menopause transition, according to Michelle L. Tollefson, MD, FACOG, FACLM, DipABLM, a board-certified lifestyle medicine expert and professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Studies published in Menopause and Maturitas found that consuming more fruit and vegetables was associated with improved menopausal symptoms. It was the top story in women’s health last week.

Another top story was about a prospective, epidemiologic cohort study that found postmenopausal women who discontinued or never used hormone therapy over a 5-year period experienced a loss in bone density compared with those who continued hormone therapy.

“Discontinuation of hormone therapy use can result in bone loss similar to that which occurs at the time of menopause,” Alyssa N. Sheedy, BS, a research assistant and third-year medical student at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo, and colleagues wrote in Menopause.

Read these and more top stories in women’s health below:

Lifestyle modifications lead to cardiometabolic health benefits during menopause

Therapeutic lifestyle modifications, particularly focusing on diet quality, can improve long-term cardiometabolic health for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, according to a presenter at the Lifestyle Medicine Conference. Read more.

Bone density decreases when stopping, never using menopausal hormone therapy

Postmenopausal women who stopped or never used hormone therapy over a 5-year period experienced a loss in bone density, whereas bone density was maintained for those who continued treatment, researchers reported in Menopause. Read more.

Nutrition, stress reduction can affect women’s health conditions through gut health

Susan Weiner, MS, RDN, CDCES, FADCES, continues her conversation with Audrey Fleck, MS, RDN, about associations between gut dysbiosis — an unhealthy imbalance of microbes in the gut — and diseases associated with reproductive hormones. Read more.

Adverse childhood experiences do not significantly influence age at natural menopause

Stressful life experiences, such as adverse childhood experiences, were not associated with age at natural menopause despite a negative impact of stress on the health of midlife women, researchers reported in Menopause. Read more.

Prenatal cannabis exposure increases preterm, low birth weight, NICU care risks

Infants who were exposed to cannabis in utero have increased risks for being born prematurely, having a low birth weight and requiring NICU care compared with nonexposed infants, researchers reported in Addiction. Read more.