Mood swings are something women can suffer from throughout their hormonal life from the traumas of PMS and (verbally) biting off the heads of those who cross you, to the weepiness and sadness that can occur at menopause.

On the menopause mood front it seems that indulging your passion for soaps and television instead of some time spent exercising is generally is not good for older women.   An investigation from the Harvard School of Public Health that included data on nearly 50,000 women who participated in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study, found that the women who reported exercising most (90 minutes or more daily) were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed as depressed than those who exercised least (less than 10 minutes per day).

Switching off the box can also help your mood as they also found that the more hours per week in front of the screen the women spent then the higher the risk of depression. If you are spending three or more hours a day then apparently you are 13 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression than women who rarely turned on the box at all.

All very well, but they don’t to have taken into account the feel good factor from watching Strictly Come Dancing which as my toes twinkle in harmony with the dancers, albeit from my chair, is surely exercise as well?

Bones Need Real Exercise

We know that to keep our bones healthy and strong they need regular weight bearing exercise, but there has recently been a trend for vibration machines which claim to do the work for you – but they don’t build your bones.

This new research was undertaken by a group of 202 postmenopausal women who signed on for a yearlong study of the machines’ effectiveness and were then studied by researchers at Toronto General Hospital.

The women selected had bone mass was low but not bad enough to require treatment with prescription drugs – and I am sure no one mentioned the benefits of bioidentical natural progesterone for bone building. The women were randomly divided into three groups; two groups were assigned to stand on a whole body vibration platform that moved at one of two speeds for 20 minutes a day. The third group served as controls.

All the women were given calcium and vitamin D to see if the supplements plus the vibration reduced the rate of bone loss. Their bone density was measured when the study began and when it ended and the machines made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

The group using the machines and the control groups showed no statistically significant difference in rate of bone loss over the year.

Back to the old methods of supplementing with bioidentical natural progesterone and going for brisk healthy walks then.