15 Feb The importance of exercise for women’s health

Regular physical activity provides health benefits, including the reduction in risks of coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, colon, and breast cancer, improving mood and cognitive function, and reducing mortality. Despite this information, most women are physically inactive. Health Guidelines recommend that at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days is required for good health. This is the same for women and men.

Exercise helps counteract hormonally-driven mood swings.

From the first menstrual cycle until menopause, women live with a shifting level of oestrogen and progesterone that impacts their fertility patterns as well as also their brain chemistry and moods. When oestrogen levels drop, such as before and during a woman’s period or leading up to menopause, women lose a natural source of the “feel good” brain chemical called serotonin. This makes them more susceptible to moodiness, depression, and anxiety attacks, such as the symptoms found in severe premenstrual syndrome or post-partum depression.

Exercise counters these hormonally-triggered mood swings by releasing endorphins, another mood regulator. Sometimes called the “runner’s high,” endorphins leave you feeling happy and relaxed after a workout.

Exercise prevents bone loss and osteoporosis.

Women are far more vulnerable than men to develop osteoporosis and related bone fracture and loss of height as they age. According to the 

National Osteoporosis Foundation of South Africa, 1 in 3 of South Africans with osteoporosis are women, and half of women over age 50 who have osteoporosis will break a bone. This is largely because women have thinner bones than men and lose bone strength more rapidly as they age due to the loss of oestrogen. 

One of the best ways to build strong bones is through exercise, preferably starting in the younger years. During the teen and young adult years is when women build most of the bone mass that can protect them from osteoporosis later in life.

Weight-bearing and muscle strengthening exercises particularly promote bone health, no matter what your age. Tennis, hiking, aerobics, or jogging build bones and keep them strong. Lifting weights, using exercise bands, or simply standing up and rising to your toes, builds strength, balance and flexibility that can prevent falls. 

Exercise keeps weight in check.

Although men and women both tend to gain weight as they age, women have special challenges. Younger women may find that the weight gain of pregnancy can linger long past delivery. Then, as middle-aged women lose oestrogen in menopause, the body redistributes fat cells to the belly, which can frustrate weight loss. And because muscle burns more calories than fat, women can struggle with maintaining or losing weight as their muscle mass declines with age.

Exercise can counter these factors by helping women maintain and build lean muscle mass that makes them look and feel slimmer. Exercise also burns excess calories that would otherwise accumulate as fat. 

Exercise improves sleep.

A national poll of 1,506 adults nationwide, conducted in 2005, discovered that women have more difficulty falling and staying asleep compared to men and experience more daytime sleepiness. This tendency can grow even more disruptive due to new motherhood, monthly hormonal changes and perimenopausal symptoms like night sweats.

Thankfully, exercise has an excellent track record of improving sleep. In one study of 2,600 participants, published in the Journal of Mental Health and Physical Activity, participants who incorporated 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity into their week reported a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality. They said they also felt less sleepy during the day.

It reduces your risk of dementia.

A recent report released by the World Health Organisation suggested that exercise is one of the most powerful tools in reducing your risk of developing this debilitating condition.

Conclusion

Do not think you have left it too late to start. Studies show that anyone can achieve significant health benefits after just two to three months of regular exercise. As a bonus, if you start being regularly active, your body will continue to benefit from exercise well into your 80s.