Women who suffer from frequent hot flashes and night sweats during and after menopause are 50 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a new study warns. According to research published in the journal JAMA Open Network, middle-aged women regularly suffer from the well-known symptoms of menopause, a natural part of aging that occurs when a woman’s menstrual cycle stops permanently. It happens, and she can no longer get pregnant.

Declining estrogen levels and decreased ovarian function cause frequent hot flashes and night sweats.

“There is growing evidence that women who have these severe symptoms also have something else to do in terms of health risks,” said lead investigator Monique Hedderson, a research scientist in the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. “We need to do more research to understand what’s causing this.”

How is menopause related to high blood sugar levels?

According to researchers, who analyzed data from more than 2,700 women participating in the long-term National Study on Women’s Health in the U.S., menopause causes hormonal changes that affect how your body uses insulin and blood sugar. Is. These changes include a drop in estrogen and progesterone levels, which can lead to weight gain, high blood pressure, and fluctuating blood sugar levels.

For the research, the women whose data were studied were around the typical menopausal age when they were first recruited in the mid-1990s, between 42 and 52, and had been with them for about 17 years. Was monitored. About 28 percent of them reported menopausal symptoms one to five days during the two-week period, and 10 percent reported menopausal symptoms six or more days a week.

Frequent hot flashes and night sweats—also known as vasomotor symptoms—occurred in many women, who had a 50 percent increased risk of developing diabetes. “These findings add to growing body of research about the importance of vasomotor symptoms for women’s cardiometabolic health, particularly when those symptoms are experienced over a long period of time,” said senior researcher Rebecca Thurston, director of the Center for Women’s Biobehavioral Health at the university. Is.” pittsburgh. “Is a hot flash just a hot flash?”

Menopause symptoms also cause heart disease in women

Experts say that even though there is no clear explanation for how these symptoms would increase the risk of diabetes, other factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes include lipid problems, elevated LDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol. – All these also cause heart diseases. ,

Researchers said heart disease sometimes goes hand in hand with diabetes risk, as both conditions are associated with inflammation, poor sleep quality and weight gain. “Menopause has been historically understudied,” Hedderson said in a Kaiser Permanente news release. “Further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying vasomotor symptoms and why – when persistent and severe – they are associated with adverse health risks.”

The team said future research should focus on women who experience more severe hot flashes and night sweats.

“Although 70 percent of women will experience vasomotor symptoms at some point during the menopause transition, we’re talking about a small proportion of women for whom this is a common and serious problem,” Hedderson said. They also plan to look at the relationship between menopause symptoms and other health problems.

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