MNZ Conference

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B4 Wendy Sweet

For over 30 years I have been part of the New Zealand fitness industry and as a pioneer of the personal training industry here, I love supporting health professionals to do the job they love to do. Presenting this workshop for you enables me to teach you about my women's healthy ageing doctoral research and why the menopause transition matters to women as they age.

Masterclass on Menopause - 2hrs

1. Menopause is our natural transition into our biological ageing. For many women, this is an easy transition, but for other women, the symptoms are diverse. But my research shows that worsening symptoms are related to the way our modern lifestyles 'clash' with the biological changes that are happening. We understand this better based on the relatively 'new science' called epigenetics.
   
   
2. Hormones are powerful chemical messengers that control your body's functions, so what happens when two hormones decline - oestrogen and progesterone and most importantly, what is the effect on women's health and their exercise tolerance?
   
   
3. The pathway called the HPA axis is powerful. In women, this axis connects our pituitary, thyroid and adrenal gland functions. Problems with the HPA-axis spirals women into more health and immune-system problems as they transition into post-menopause and this is when they find that they can't exercise like they used to.
   
   
4. Some women put on belly fat in menopause, some women don't. For those who do, this means that the fat cells are responding to menopause by storing more oestrogen, and this upsets progesterone levels in the body. The condition is called 'oestrogen dominance' despite exercise and healthy eating, the belly fat can continue to increase leading to changing cardiac health in post-menopause years.