A combination of estradiol and vitamin D would prevent metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women and protect them from the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Not only recommended after menopause to preserve bone capital, estradiol (the strongest estrogen hormone) and vitamin D would also be excellent for preventing metabolic syndrome, that is to say all the physiological signs that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes in postmenopausal women.
This is the conclusion of a new study conducted with a group of postmenopausal women in southern China, and published in the journal Menopause. According to its authors, there is a “synergistic role” between vitamin D deficiency and estrogen deficiency, favoring the appearance of the metabolic syndrome.
A risk of metabolic syndrome at menopause
Also called syndrome X, the metabolic syndrome has become in recent years a major public health problem since it affects 30 to 60% of postmenopausal women worldwide. The cause: a progression with age of heart disease and abdominal obesity, which seems to be directly associated with a loss of estrogen in postmenopausal women. Similarly, vitamin D has been associated with several markers of metabolic syndrome, including obesity, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Hence the vitamin D and estradiol supplements prescribed by some physicians to their postmenopausal patients.
This new work goes further by demonstrating a “positive correlation” of estrogen and vitamin D. To reach this conclusion, the researchers followed 616 postmenopausal women aged 49 to 86, who were not taking estradiol or vitamin D. of vitamin D at the start of the trial. They measured blood levels of estradiol and vitamin D in the women’s blood, as well as risk factors for metabolic syndrome.
They then found that women with lower vitamin D levels also tended to have lower estradiol levels, and those with higher levels also tended to have higher estradiol levels.
A rise in blood pressure and cholesterol
The researchers also analyzed the metabolic syndrome factors most closely correlated with vitamin D and estradiol. They then found that higher levels of vitamin D were associated with favorable lipid and glucose levels and blood pressure. Low estradiol levels tended to accompany less favorable measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides.
These results suggest that low estradiol “increases the risk of metabolic syndrome in women who also have vitamin D deficiency,” says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). “The Endocrine Society recommends vitamin D levels of 30 ng/mL for postmenopausal women. Whether adequate levels of vitamin D enhance non-skeletal cardiovascular or cognitive benefits is still debated, and the answers await the results of randomized clinical trials.”
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