Expert Highlights Need for Gender-Specific Exercise and Diet Plans

Dr. Stacy Sims, an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, has dedicated her career to understanding howwomen, know, exercise, nutrition, accordingto their physiological differences from men. Her work underscores the importance of tailoring exercise and diet plans based on gender, as women are not simply smaller versions of men.

Historically, medical researchers have primarily studied men, often ignoring sex differences and extrapolating their findings to women. This has led to incomplete, inadequate, and even harmful medical advice for women. Dr. Sims emphasizes that women are physiologically distinct from men, marked by the onset of menstruation at female puberty and the presence of two X chromosomes.

Why this matters: The lack of gender-specific research and advice can have serious consequences for women's health, leading to inadequate treatment and prevention of diseases. By acknowledging and addressing these differences, we can improve health outcomes and reduce disparities in medical care for women.

Cardiac arrest serves as a prime example ofsex-based differencesin health. Women are nearly twice as likely to die from heart attacks as men and report many more symptoms associated with acute coronary syndromes. Despite the US National Institutes of Health's 2016 policy requiring researchers to consider sex as a variable in biomedical research, women remain broadly underrepresented in medical literature.

Dr. Sims highlights the importance of strength or resistance training for women, particularly for brain health, as it helps attenuate dementia and Alzheimer's. She also notes that women should focus on high-intensity interval training, which helps raise their metabolic rate, reduce visceral fat, and improve cardiovascular health. Additionally, women recover from exercise differently than men, experiencing vasodilation right after exercise, which affects their blood pressure.

"If we work with our physiology, knowing that women are women and men are men, knowing that women are not small men, then imagine the health outcomes," Dr. Sims states. Her insights align with recent research debunking the myth that men build more muscle than women. A study by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a seven-time Mr. Olympia titleholder, found that while men can gain more total muscle than women, the rate of change in muscle size between genders is similar once genetic variables are factored out.

President Joe Biden's executive order on March 18 to improve women's health research aims to address these disparities by integrating women's health across federal agencies and driving new research. As more attention is drawn to sex-based differences in health and fitness, experts like Dr. Sims are leading the charge in advocating for gender-specific exercise and diet plans to optimize women's well-being.

Key Takeaways

• Women's physiology differs from men's, requiring gender-specific exercise and diet plans.
• Lack of gender-specific research leads to inadequate treatment and prevention of diseases in women.
• Women are nearly twice as likely to die from heart attacks as men and report more symptoms.
• Strength training and high-intensity interval training are crucial for women's brain and cardiovascular health.
• President Biden's executive order aims to improve women's health research and address disparities.