Diet And Physical Activity In Older Women

UNDER CONSTRUCTION 26.1.24

Original Editor - Lucinda hampton

Top Contributors - Lucinda hampton  

Introduction

A balance whole food diet

Physical activity and nutrition are vital for retaining good health and staving off development of non-communicable diseases. As both physical activity and nutrition are connected directly to the risk of chronic disease, we should comprehend how these modifiable factors relate to health status. Women have distinct nutritional needs based on physiological and hormonal changes at several times during their life (e.g., menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, menopause). Gender medicine needs an increase in studies dedicated to older women with a view to bringing more quality of life into a longer life.

Older age is associated with many physiological changes making undernutrition a large risk eg reduced bone and muscle mass (sarcopenia), increased frailty, reduced cognitive function and dependence on others ability to care for them. How our diet affects us as we age is poorly understood, but evidence points to the probable effects of a wide range of dietary factors with the ability to offset molecular damage (e.g., inflammation, oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction) and mitigate associated functional changes that aging induces.

Salient Points

Timing

• The timing of nutrient consumption appears to influence the metabolism in women. A huge percentage (95%) nutrient timing recommendations spring from studies conducted in men. We know now that timing of nutrient consumption during exercise directly affects performance, fatigue recovery, fat oxidation and energy expenditure. Research shows, women frequently exercise on an empty stomach, hoping to “burn fat” but it appears that women particularly this reduces fat oxidation. A better option is to , exercise on a full stomach as a higher total daily energy expenditure, increased fat oxidation and improved body composition is the likely outcome.
• Evidence suggests that consuming a bolus of protein before exercise, not carbohydrates,, significantly increases energy expenditure and improves fat oxidation after aerobic exercise, high intensity interval training and resistance training. It seems the above approach ie pre-exercise nutrition is more better way for women to see improvements in strength and lean body mass, than post-exercise nutrition.

Insufficiency Fractures

• Some foods and nutrients may play a part in preventing fractures. Recent research revealed that along side protein, tea and coffee seem to play a role in prevention of hip fractures in underweight women. For every extra cup of tea or coffee per day consumed a 4% lower risk of hip fracture was noted, whilst a 25 g/day increment of dietary protein intake was also associated with a 14% lower risk of hip fracture.
• Vitamin D plays a role too in older womens health, with many peri- and postmenopausal women being either deficient in or have low levels of vitamin D and magnesium. Vitamin D is essential for bone health, as well as preventing muscle weakness, protecting against falls, and providing immune support.

Quality Eating

• Assessing the quality of the total diet appears to be a better approach to nutritional epidemiology, with early measures of diet quality focusing on malnutrition and nutrient deficiency diseases. Current assessments of diet quality, such as the Diet Quality Index and the Healthy Eating Index, look more at the issues of overnutrition and focus on dietary moderation, variety, and balance. Evidence suggests that in the US elderly women have the highest scores, reflecting high consumption of grains, vegetables, and fruits. Healthy Eating Index scores increased with age, education, and income, again showing that the quality of the diet is largely determined by social and environmental variables.

Eating Disorders

Body weight dissatisfaction is connected to unhealthy dietary intakes in older age, as it is in all age groups for women. Accurate weight perception seems to decrease with age but health providers must be encourage them to improve their diets in an appropriate manner. This needs be done with tact to avoid triggering body weight unhappiness, and the same counterintuitive results on weight loss that occurs in eating disorders, as a sizeable proportion of middle-aged and older women have body weight dissatisfaction. This is highly relevant as unsupervised restrictive diets potentially have severe consequences, such as eliminating important dietary sources of vitamins and minerals or disordered eating.

Cancer

The cancer burden globally among women is high in both HICs and LMICs, and it is expected to increase as populations age and as risk factors linked to urbanisation increase in prevalence.

• Strong evidence shows that physical activity performed at moderate to vigorous intensity protects against colon and breast cancer, and probably against cancer at all other sites.
• A healthy diet is associated with lower cancer mortality in women, even after adjusting for obesity and inflammation. An example of a healthy diet is a Mediterranean diet. In addition, diet may play a stronger role in reducing cancer mortality in women than physical activity.

Viewing

In this 18 minute video Dr. Volpe confronts our popular denial of growing older and older every day. She points out that it is never too late to start becoming an active and healthy individual – we just need to face that fact that exercise and eating habits are the best way of attaining that.

Physiotherapy

To see the relevance to our profession see a few of the many links below:

• Relevance of Nutrition in Physiotherapy
• Physical Activity as an Anti-Aging Medicine
• Exercise and Protein Supplements
• Physical Activity in Older Adults
• Menopause