If you’re a woman, your lifetime odds of getting dementia or Alzheimer’s are about 1 in 5. For men, it’s about 1 in 10. Those numbers come from the Framingham Heart Study, which followed nearly 8,000 people starting in midlife.
Part of the gap comes down to women living longer. The researchers pointed out that a lot of men die of heart disease before they have a chance to get dementia. So, congratulations, guys. Your big Alzheimer’s prevention strategy is dying of something else first. I don’t recommend it. This article is important for you too. A lot of the same things that help women prevent Alzheimer’s will help you as well.
That being said, men dying earlier doesn't fully explain the difference in lifetime Alzheimer’s risk between men and women. Hormones might be the explanation.
Your Brain Needs Estrogen
You might think of estrogen as a reproductive hormone. It’s more than that. It helps regulate your menstrual cycle, supports bone health, and affects a whole lot more than your reproductive system.
Your brain has estrogen receptors, too. Estrogen helps brain cells use glucose for energy, supports connections between neurons, and influences memory and learning. Your brain is an energy-hungry organ, and estrogen helps it keep the lights on.
During perimenopause, estrogen levels can fluctuate dramatically. After menopause, levels remain much lower. Many women notice brain fog, trouble finding words, memory lapses, and difficulty concentrating during this period.
Dr. Lisa Mosconi and her team at Weill Cornell have used PET imaging to study brain energy use in women during the menopause transition. In their research, women in perimenopause and menopause showed lower glucose use in several brain regions than women who had not yet entered the transition. The researchers also found lower activity in an enzyme involved in mitochondrial energy production, along with lower scores on some memory tests.
A later study of 161 women found changes in brain structure, connectivity, and energy use across the menopause transition.
Estrogen does more than help your brain use fuel. It also affects synapses, the connections neurons use to communicate. Your brain relies on those connections to store memories, learn new skills, and retrieve information. Maintaining them gives you a better shot at keeping your mind sharp as you age.
Here’s something important I want you to hear. Brain fog during perimenopause and menopause is not something you have to shrug off as an inevitable part of getting older. It’s important, especially when it interferes with your work, your sleep, or your quality of life.
You also don’t need to wait until menopause to care about brain health. You can dial in your exercise, sleep, metabolic health, hearing, vision, nutrition, and learning at any age.
Alzheimer’s develops over many years. You have time to work on the things you can influence, and you have more options than memorizing crossword answers.
Here’s what’s coming up:
The menopause brain-protection strategy I’d want every woman to know about.
The type of exercise to do to keep your brain young.
Cutting-edge brain-training biohacks that go way beyond crossword puzzles.
The supplements and compounds for your brain-health stack.
