Women who enter menopause between the ages of 40 and 45 years have increased risk of heart failure, compared with women who enter the phase between age 50 and 54, a gynaecologist has warned.
Women who have reached menopause need engage in regular exercise and control their diet to reduce the risk of heart disease, Dr Adeniji Adewunmi said.
Adewunmi, a consultant and lecturer at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, said menopause was significantly associated with heart failure and that woman who live unhealthy lifestyles risk being victims.
The gynaecologist said that the average age at menopause was 50 years old, but that some women reach menopause at an earlier age.
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“Typically, unhealthy lifestyles will make women reach menopause earlier than those who live healthy.
“Menopause, early or late, is always a good time to take more steps to reduce heart disease risk through exercise, healthy diet, weight loss, and quitting unhealthy habits,” he said.
The consultant noted that most women at menopause were depressed due to the changes their bodies underwent.
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According to him, menopause is associated with hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and pains, and as such, women feel depressed.
“Depression is common among women in their menopause due to the hormonal changes in their system.
“The symptoms affect a woman’s quality of life, including not sleeping well at night, interfering with work and leisure activities,” he said.
He said that weight loss as part of a healthy dietary modification, might help eliminate symptoms among menopausal women.
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He added that exposure to sunlight played a role to some extent in the prevention of the symptoms that accompany menopause in women.
“Women should form the habit of walking under the sun for at least 15 minutes daily to get vitamin D produced by sunlight.
“Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, maintain healthy and stronger bones, improves mood, increases hormone performance, and prevents heart disease,” he told NAN.
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3 comments
I am worried about your headline”Early Menopuase linked to heart failure,” so do exercise. What you are saying here is that both menopause and exercise are linked to heart failure but if you have written”Early menopause linked to heart failure, so, do exercise or Early menopause linked to heart failure, so, exercise,” it would not have been this ambiguous and therefore misleading.
This is an example of the sorry state of Nigerian journalism. There seems to be no effort at proof reading articles and especially headlines. I am quite disappointed, as I had thought that Simon Kolawole and his team will make a difference. Apparently not. However, I hope the Cable editors learn from both our comments.
Dear Sunfair 55 and JoeBoy,
There is nothing wrong about the caption. If “do” in the caption had been written as “does”, you certainly would be right. This is because “exercise” can only take the singular verb “does”, for the headline to have the meaning you have made out of it. With “do”, the only possible meaning is that one should engage in exercise.
Please consult your dictionaries again, and you would see your mistake. And when you do, we hope you would be brave enough to recant yourselves and send a note of apology to members of the team whose competence you have unjustly questioned.
Regards,
Editor