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How Menopause Messes With Your Brain

Research is revealing the toll falling estrogen can take on brain health — as well as what offers some women protection

Erlon Silva - TRI Digital / Getty Images Each year, over one million women in the U.S. go through menopause, which can including hot flashes, weight gain, low or fluctuating libido and sleep problems. But there’s another change that carries even more health implications: an increased risk of .
Nearly two -thirds of those living with Alzheimer’s in the United States are women, a vulnerability that may begin as early as perimenopause, and relates to estrogen. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. “It’s not a surprise when you think about how many menopausal symptoms — including depression, anxiety and even cognitive fog — actually stem from the brain rather than the ovaries,” says Lisa Mosconi, director of the Women’s Brain Initiative and associate director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Research backs her up. Mosconi published this past June in the journal Scientific Reports scanned the brains of 161 women between the ages of 40 and 65 who were in various stages of perimenopausal and post-menopausal transition. She found a trove of data on brain changes during menopause, including a decrease of both gray and w hite matter, increases in deposits of the Alzheimer’s-associated protein amyloid beta, and a decrease in glucose, the main fuel source for your body’s cells. And estrogen plays a role in all of them. “We think about this hormone as mainly a reproductive hormone, but it’s actually the ‘master regulator’ of the female brain,” she explains. “It literally pushes neurons to burn glucose to make energy " ; it’s also involved in growth, plasticity and immunity. As a result, it keeps your brain younger and healthier , she says. As estrogen declines with age, she notes, "your neurons start slowing down and age faster.” This causes not only cognitive changes such as depression, anxiety and trouble concentrating, but other menopause-related symptoms. “When estrogen doesn’t activate the hypothalamus in the brain, it can’t regulate body temperature, which leads to hot flashes,” she explains. “When it doesn’t activate the part of the brain stem in charge of sleep and wake, we develop insomnia. And when it can’t activate the amygdala, the memory center of the brain, we get depressed, anxious — even forgetful.” AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. coauthored by Mosconi and published in November in the medical journal Neurology found that greater lifelong exposure to estrogen — for example, having more children, taking oral contraceptives or being on hormone replacement therapy — seems to counter these effects. Study subjects who fit one of those criteria actually showed more gray matter (responsible for memory and emotions) than others in the study. When Mosconi and her colleagues set out to do this study, she didn’t hypothesize that having more kids would be protective — if anything, she thought it would have the opposite effect. “But it seems that when women become mothers, it primes their brains to be more responsive to certain aspects of life that require strong memory, attention and focus ," Mosconi says. "So, while transitioning into menopause makes the female brain more vulnerable, all of these other reproductive history events make it more resilient.” Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > It's too early to say whether or not peri - and post-menopausal women can benefit by going on , cautions Mosconi. While earlier studies found that HRT d id lower the risk of dementia, other studies have found that it either did nothing or that it slightly elevated dementia risk. Still, there are other things you can do to protect your brain as you go through menopause, she stresses. These include:

Eat a healthy diet

The Mediterranean diet , in particular , is especially supportive of women’s brain health, says Mosconi. Her 2018 study published in Neurology, for example, found that people who strictly followed this eating pattern — rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats such as olive oil — had fewer beta-amyloid deposits in their brains (a harbinger of Alzheimer’s) than those who did not. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that people ages 55 and older who enrolled in a 12-week program consisting of an hour of a type of meditative yoga once a week , as well as 12 minutes of at-home meditation, had significant improvements in both verbal memory (the ability to remember word lists) and visual-spatial memory (the ability to find and remember locations).

Lay off the cigarettes and watch the booze

A 2020 Lancet Commission on dementia prevention named both as significant modifiable risk factors for dementia. A review of 37 research studies published in PL oS One found that current smokers were 30 percent more likely to develop dementia in general and 40 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who never smoked.

Get other health conditions under control

If you have or , midlife is the time to do something about it, stresses Mosconi. Women with high blood pressure in their 40s, for example, have an almost 70 percent higher risk for dementia in later years than women with normal blood pressure, according to a 2017 published in Neurology. Ultimately, it comes down to taking the time to nurture yourself, says Mosconi. “Midlife is such a big turning point in a woman's life, especially as they go through menopause . It's a time when we should be taking extra care of ourselves, rather than less — our brain health really depends on it.” How Menopause Messes With Your Brain (and Why You Shouldn't Worry About It) Hallie Levine is a contributing writer and an award-winning medical and health reporter. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Consumer Reports, Real Simple, Health and Time, among other publications. More on health AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS