Vim & Vigor - Summer 2018 - University of Virginia - 3

HEALTHY DOSE

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TIPS AND NEWS FROM UVA HEALTH SYSTEM? IT'S SIMPLE.
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Ways to Power Through

MENOPAUSE

Hot flashes. Wrinkles. Leaky bladder. Weight gain. Menopause
symptoms can feel like they're taking over and ruining your life. But
you don't just have to suffer. JoAnn Pinkerton, MD, director of UVA
Midlife Health, offers seven things you can do to take charge and get
through menopause stronger than ever. Strength training is key. It's
also important to consider hormone replacement therapy (more
on that to the right). Don't miss five more ways at uvahealth.com/
powerthrough.

HRT:

Safer Than
You Think

First came hope that hormone replacement therapy
(HRT) could protect women against common
ailments like dementia. Then came warnings that it
could shorten a woman's life. Turns out that neither
the hype nor the grim warnings were warranted,
according to a landmark clinical trial that followed
more than 27,000 women for roughly 18 years.
In findings published in the journal JAMA, women
who were randomly assigned to take some form of
HRT for about six to seven years were no more or
less likely to die of any cause over the study's duration, than were women who had been assigned to
receive a placebo treatment. The trial represents the
most comprehensive study to assess HRT's effects.
Its findings align with a position statement issued
last summer by the North American Menopause
Society (NAMS).
For most women within 10 years of reaching
menopause and troubled by hot flashes or other
symptoms, HRT is safe and can improve quality of
life, increase productivity, and reduce medical expenditures linked to untreated symptoms of menopause,
NAMS says. "This study is just one more piece of
reassuring data in line with our findings," says JoAnn
Pinkerton, MD, who currently serves as chair of the
NAMS panel that drafted the position statement.

Keep Baby Safe

PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES

WITH 2 + MONTHS OF MOTHER'S MILK

Breastfeeding for at least two months cuts a baby's risk of sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS) almost in half, a sweeping new UVA-led international
study has found. "It's great for mothers to know that breastfeeding for at
least two months provides such a strong protective effect against SIDS, the
leading cause of death for babies between one month and one year of age,"
says researcher Rachel Moon, MD, of the University of Virginia Health System
and UVA Children's Hospital.
The study (published in the scientific journal Pediatrics) also showed that
mothers do not need to breastfeed exclusively to get the benefit. To keep up
with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of
Medicine blog at makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

S UMME R 2018

http://BLOG.UVAHEALTH.COM http://www.FACEBOOK.COM/UVAHEALTH http://www.uvahealth.com/powerthrough http://www.uvahealth.com/powerthrough http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu

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