This week I studied the paper
“Effects of high fat diet on plasma lipids, adiposity, and inflammatory markers
in ovariectomized mice.” This article pointed out that the combination of a
high fat diet along with an ovariectomized mouse correlated with increased body
weight, increased adipocyte diameter, and an increase in pro-inflammatory
markers such as leptin, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. These ovariectomized mice can be
compared to women going through menopause or who are post-menopausal because
they also experience weight gain, shift in fat distribution throughout the
body, along with other frustrating side effects. For reference, menopause is a
time in a woman’s life where her ovaries stop making eggs and produce less
estrogen and progesterone, leading to the termination of her menstrual cycle.
So why are estrogen and
progesterone so important to the female body? This article shows that women
with their ovaries (non- menopausal) seem to have “hormonal protection” against
weight gain and are less at risk for inflammation related diseases such as
diabetes. It is not completely clear what estrogen’s role is because
oddly it seems to down regulate levels of adiponectin. It can be concluded,
however, that it is very important for menopausal women to avoid a high fat
diet because they no longer have this hormonal protection.
What I found most intriguing during
our discussion of this article in class was our thoughts on the age at which menopause
occurs. Is it possible that the age is decreasing? Years ago menopause was
considered to take place around 60 years of age, but now it can be anywhere
between 40-58 years of age, with an average age of 51. Sometimes menopause can even occur before 35
and this is called premature menopause (http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/sexual-health-your-guide-to-menopause)
or premature ovarian failure. I thought it would be interesting to research if
and why menopause is occurring earlier in women’s lives and how that might
relate to obesity, diabetes, or inflammation.
Studies seem to show that there is
a relationship between obesity in children and early puberty. One possible explanation
for this is that the levels of leptin are increased in obese children, and
leptin, along with other hormones, play a role in the onset of puberty. I
thought there might be a connection between early puberty and early menopause,
but it seems there is no evidence in the literature to support this. Although I
read somewhere that poor diet is a possible explanation.
Some other possible explanations for premature menopause may
include thyroid dysfunction, autoimmune disorder, and genetics (http://www.earlymenopause.com/causes.htm)
I’d be interested to
see what you guys are able to find in terms of obesity, inflammation, and
premature menopause!
I actually do believe that there is a correlation between early puberty and early menopause. Looking at early puberty first, its not a secret that our diets have changed drastically in the past 50 years. The number of obese children is higher than ever, and as you pointed out this increases levels of lectin which may lead to an early puberty. Children are reaching puberty faster and faster. Now when a girl reaches puberty this means that every month a cohort of premature follicles are recruited leading to the ovulation of a mature egg. Females are born with all the follicles they'll ever have, and once there are no more left a woman will start going through menopause. Now it only makes sense that if a girl starts puberty at the age of 8 instead of 13, she will go through menopause 5 years earlier than if she had started puberty at 13.
ReplyDeleteTo me, what ZainabK495 said makes total sense. I tried to find some good research studies connecting that the age at which a woman starts menstruating will predict the age at which she will experience the onset of menopause but no luck. What I did find was a website that discussed a completed questionnaire involving 12,134 postmenopausal women and found that for each year a woman’s menopause was delayed, her risk of death, adjusted for age, dipped by 2 percent. In particular, the risks of death from heart disease and stroke fell as age at menopause rose, and thus the net effect was a longer life expectancy for women with a later menopause for the general population. All the causes for early puberty are unclear but some suspects we don’t typically discuss include pthallates, a compound that come from plastics and agricultural chemicals, which mimics estrogen’s effects on the body and could be found into the water supply, and in bottle water. As well as soy estrogens, from soy milk, soy beans, and the eggs and milk from animals fed soy.
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