Two new studies have looked at how menopause and the lack of sleep associated with it can speed up aging in women. These studies looked at data from more than 5,000 women and the results were published in the journals Biological Psychiatry and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The senior author of both studies is Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics and biostatistics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Horvath indicated that he and his team of researchers found that menopause can boost cellular aging by an average of six percent, after scientists speculated for years about whether menopause causes aging or vice versa.
Insomnia, a common symptom of menopause, contributes to this problem. Repeated night waking, trouble falling asleep, waking too early in the morning, and restless sleep can all contribute to accelerated aging in women. In the reviewed data, women who reported these sleep symptoms were biologically older than women the same chronological age who did not.
To help combat this accelerated aging, women should talk with their doctors about managing menopause, especially if there is trouble with sleeping. More information is needed to discover the link between menopause and early aging.
Studies Suggest That Menopause Speeds Up Aging
Posted On: 07-29-2016
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