Anti-Aging Medicine

by Dr. Ronald Klatz, MD, DO, and Dr. Robert Goldman, MD, PhD, DO, FAASP

American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M)

www.worldhealth.net

An Anti-Aging Medical Approach to Women’s Health

In September 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a landmark Consensus Report titled “Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise.” While women comprise slightly more than half of the total US population, the IOM observes that medical research historically has neglected the health needs of women. During the past two decades, the IOM reports that great strides in women’s health research have been made, contributing to significant progress in lessening the burden of disease and reducing deaths from some conditions. Warning, “Gaps remain, both in research areas and in the application of results to benefit women in general and across multiple population groups,” the IOM urges, “maintaining support for women’s health research and enhancing its impact are not only in the interest of women, they are in the interest of us all.”

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, an international medical society comprising 22,000 physician and health-practitioner members from 105 nations worldwide, agrees that women’s health must be a top public health priority. In this column, we share recent medical headlines relating to women’s health, and encourage our readers to embrace the principles of the Anti-Aging Lifestyle, involving diet, exercise, and other healthful habits, to both improve their quality of life and achieve optimal health and well-being.

Women’s health research: progress, pitfalls, and promise [Web article]. Institute of Medicine. http://iom.edu/Reports/2010/Womens-Health-Research-Progress-Pitfalls-and-Promise.aspx. Accessed 8 Oct. 2010.

At-Home Exercise Helps Protect Against Fractures

Falls are responsible for 90% or more of all hip fractures, which are injuries that are associated with high mortality rates. Raija Korpelainen and colleagues from Oulu Deaconess Institute (Finland) followed 160 women who participated in a trial aimed at reducing risk factors for fractures in elderly women with osteopenia (a reduction in bone mass, or low levels of bone calcium): 84 women were assigned to an exercise group, while the remaining 76 women served as controls. Women in the exercise group attended supervised balance, leg strength and impact training sessions once a week for a 6-month period annually or 4 years. During the 7.1 year follow-up period, 17 women in the exercise group were hospital-treated for fractures, while 23 fractures occurred in the control group. Additionally, the total incidence rate of fractures in the exercise group was 0.05 per 1,000 women per year versus 0.08 in the control group. The authors found: “Fractures were proximal in 52.2 percent of the control group and 17.6 percent of the exercise group. Moderate lifelong physical activity decreased the overall risk of having any fractures during the total follow-up period.” Additionally, no hip fractures occurred in the exercise group during the follow-up period, while five hip fractures occurred in the control group. The researchers also report that the exercise group also “demonstrated a significant gain compared with the control group in mean leg strength during the trial.” The researchers report: “30 months of supervised, mainly home-based exercises followed by voluntary home training had a positive long-term effect on balance and gait in high-risk elderly women,” and “life-long physical activity was associated with reduced risk of fractures.”

Korpelainen R, Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi S, Nieminen P, Heikkinen J, Väänänen K, Korpelainen J. Long-term outcomes of exercise: follow-up of a randomized trial in older women with osteopenia. Arch Intern Med. September 2010;170:1548–1556.

Chocolate May Reduce Risks of Heart Failure

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood sufficiently to the rest of the body, and occurs most frequently in the aging population. Murray Mittleman and colleagues from Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts, USA) studied data collected on 31,823 middle-aged and elderly Swedish women, assessing the relationship of the amount of high-quality (cocoa-rich) chocolate the women ate, compared with their risk for heart failure. The team found that those women who consumed an average of one to two servings of the high-quality chocolate per week were at a 32% lower risk of developing heart failure, and those who ate one to three servings per month had a 26% lower risk. Noting that high concentration of flavonoids, potent antioxidant compounds, in chocolate may lower blood pressure, the researchers conclude: “Moderate habitual chocolate intake was associated with a lower rate of [heart failure] hospitalization or death.”

Mostofsky E, Levitan EB, Wolk A, Mittleman MA. Chocolate intake and incidence of heart failure: a population-based, prospective study of middle-aged and elderly women. Circ Heart Fail. Aug. 16, 2010.

Lifelong Physical Activity Helps to Retain Cognitive Skills

Previous research has suggested that people who are physically active in mid- and late life are at lower risks of developing dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment as they age. Laura Middleton and colleagues from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Ontario, Canada) studied 9344 women residing in four US states, to assess the impact of physical activity at different life stages on cognitive skills. The team compared the physical activity at teenage, age 30, age 50, and late life against cognition, finding that only teenage physical activity status remained significantly associated with cognitive performance in old age. The researchers also found that women who were physically inactive at teenage but became physically active at age 30 and age 50 had significantly reduced odds of cognitive impairment relative to those who remained physically inactive. Writing, “Women who reported being physically active at any point over the life course, especially as teenagers, had a lower likelihood of cognitive impairment in late life,” the team urges: “Interventions should promote physical activity early in life and throughout the life course.”

Middleton LE, Barnes DE, Lui L-Y, Yaffe K. Physical activity over the life course and its association with cognitive performance and impairment in old age. J Am Geriatr Soc. July 2010;58(7):1322–1326.

Healthy Diet Combats Cataract Formation

Cataracts, the most common type of opacity affecting the lens of the eye, tend to occur in a higher prevalence in women who have myopia or hypertension, smoke, and/or are overweight/obese. Julie A. Mares and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) assessed the dietary intake of 1808 women, aged 50 to 79 years, participating in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, and tracked the subjects for the development of cataracts. The team found that women who consumed foods rich in vitamins and minerals were at a 37% reduced risk of developing nuclear cataracts. Speculating that a healthy diet lowers oxidative stress and systemic inflammation, both of which may reduce the development of cataract, the researchers conclude: “These data add to the body of evidence suggesting that eating foods rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals may contribute to postponing the occurrence of the most common type of cataract in the United States.”

Mares JA, Voland R, Adler R, et al., for the CAREDS Group. healthy diets and the subsequent prevalence of nuclear cataract in women. Arch Ophthalmol. Jun 2010;128:738–749.

Brisk Walking May

Lower

Stroke Risk

In that physical activity has found by several studies to inversely correlate to the risk of developing stroke, Jacob R. Sattelmair and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA) examined the effects of a variety of leisure-time activities among women. Studying data on 39,315 healthy American women, aged 45 years and over, enrolled in the Women’s Health Study, the team investigated the subjects’ physical activity at the study’s start and at five points during a follow-up period of nearly 12 years, and tracked the incidence of stroke during the same timeframe. The researchers found that those women who engaged in moderately intense were at a markedly lower risk of stroke, whereby walking time and pace was inversely related to the risk of any stroke, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke. Stroke risk declined by as much as 37% as the pace of walking increased from less than 2 to over 3 miles/hour. Writing, “This study shows a tendency for leisure-time physical activity to be associated with lower stroke risk in women,” the team concludes: “In particular, walking was generally associated with lower risks of total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke.”

Sattelmair JR, Kurth T, Buring JE, Lee I-M. Physical activity and risk of stroke in women. Stroke. Apr 2010.

To stay updated on the latest breakthroughs in preventative nutritional and lifestyle approaches that promote women’s health, visit the World Health Network (www.worldhealth.net), the official educational website of the A4M and your one-stop resource for authoritative anti-aging information. Be sure to sign up for the free Longevity Magazine e-journal, your weekly health newsletter featuring wellness, prevention, and biotech advancements in longevity.