As defined by neuroscientist, nutritionist, and affiliate director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical Faculty Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D., in a mindbodygreen podcast episode, reproductive hormones play a large function in defending our brains from harm (such because the amyloid plaques related to Alzheimer’s illness).
“The interactions between the mind and the reproductive organs are actually essential for mind well being and mind getting older—particularly in girls,” she says. “We have a tendency to think about testosterone [and] estrogens as concerned in copy, having youngsters. However in actuality, these hormones have numerous results inside our brains.”
“Particularly, they actually push our neurons to convey glucose to make power. So in case your hormones are excessive, your mind power is excessive. However then what occurs to testosterone is that it does not fairly decline that a lot over time; whereas for girls, estrogens just about plummet when girls undergo menopause,” Mosconi shares.
It is this plummet in estrogen that leaves girls’s brains particularly susceptible after they hit menopause of their 40s or 50s. “Should you consider these hormones as having some sort of superpowers for the mind, girls lose the superpower across the time that menopause hits, proper? And the mind is left somewhat extra susceptible,” Mosconi says.
Like menopause, having your uterus or ovaries eliminated (i.e., a hysterectomy or oophorectomy) additionally ends in a drastic drop in estrogen ranges. Different intervals of hormonal fluctuations—resembling puberty and being pregnant—affect estrogen ranges as nicely, which explains why some hormonal well being elements depart girls at greater threat whereas others assist shield their brains.
