Women who experience frequent hot flashes and night sweats during and after their menopause are 50 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a new study has warned. According to the research, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, middle-aged women regularly suffer the well-known symptoms of menopause a natural part of ageing that occurs when a woman's menstrual periods permanently stop, and she can no longer get pregnant. Frequent hot flashes and night sweats happen due to a decline in estrogen levels and a loss of ovarian function.
“There’s a growing body of evidence that women who have these severe symptoms seem to have something else going on as well, in terms of health risks,” said lead investigator Monique Hedderson, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. “We need to do more research into understanding what is causing it.” How is menopause related to high blood sugar levels? According to the researchers, who analyzed data from more than 2,700 women participating in a long-term national study on women’s health in the US, menopause leads to hormonal changes that affect how your body uses insulin and blood sugar.
These changes include a drop in estrogen and progesterone levels, which can lead to weight gain, higher blood pressure, and fluctuating blood sugar levels. For the research, women whose data was studied were around typical menopause age when first recruited in the mid-1990s, between 42 and 52, and they have be.