Presenting Author
Northern Arizona University
Aging is a natural progression in life and for women, menopause is a natural part of aging. During menopause, women’s circulating estrogen concentrations are depleted and therefore these aging women are exposed to various disease risks, namely cardiovascular disease. We know that exercise one of the most pleotropic techniques for reducing disease and improving function in heart, muscle, brain, and bone, yet it remains unclear as to whether estrogen supplementation (estrogen replacement therapy) could provide additive benefits. I want to understand the mechanisms behind how exercise and estrogen, and the combination of both impact a non-exercise oxidative stress challenge through a forearm ischemia/reperfusion in addition to an acute exercise bout. I am interested in not only looking at the oxidative stress induced by the non-exercising challenge, but also the antioxidant effect of the acute exercise trial. Additionally, I am interested in assessing the contribution of exercise, estrogen, and life stressors on the telomere length in postmenopausal women. Sex Differences have become an important question in addressing in human and translational physiology. My knowledge of estrogen signaling, and the effects of estrogen systemically have led me to expanding my research to murine models while observing the effects of estrogen on wound healing rates across sex. My dissertation work also included researching the effects of estrogen replacement therapy and endogenous estrogen on arsenic, which is a known toxic metalloid responsible for inducing oxidative stress. This work has lead me to understand that there are apparent sex differences that emerge in response to a physiological stressor or stimulus, that may not exist when comparing across healthy or non-stressed groups. i hope to continue investigating the effects of sex hormones on redox capacity in disease.