Your first few post menopausal years determine your ageing process

In our postmenopausal years, we like to kick back, relax, drink too much champagne and enjoy ourselves because hey, we made it! But, our carefree living in those years has much more significant effects on our health than previously thought.

A study published in Molecular Psychiatry has found that a healthy lifestyle in post-menopausal women will aid in the prevention of disease associated with ageing in the later years of life.

Having a healthy lifestyle with factors including eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep all help to regulate the stress-induced degradation of our telomeres… What in the world is a telomere? It’s like a cap on the end of DNA that protects the genes and stops them from shortening and wearing down.

This is a big part of preventing degenerative diseases that are heavily associated with ageing. These include cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s. A common factor in these diseases is the long-term chronic stress, which is thought to speed up ageing of the immune system and increases the shortening of the DNA, thus wearing down the systems that protect the body from these diseases.

The study reviewed 239 postmenopausal, non-smoking women over a period of one year. As well as the association between healthy lifestyle and delayed telomere shortening they also found that unexpected stressors increase the speed at which the telomere shortens.

What this study means for us is that however we lived (or are living!) in those years has significant impact on the way our health will be managed as we age.

If we want to give ourselves the best chance of having a healthy and happy ageing process, we’ll need to start working on our health earlier making sure we eat well, exercise often and get enough sleep.

How well do you look after your health? Do you live a healthy lifestyle? Tell us about yours in the comments below…