Menopause and Alzheimers article

[Andrew_McP]

https://medium.com/neurotrack/menopause-and-alzheimers-1c455f29fe16

I'm always wary of random articles which pop up in my various feeds, but having read this, it feels important to pass on even if others have done so already and I've missed it.

The only problem I have with it at first glance is that goji berries are mentioned, and that's usually where I roll my eyes and turn off. Fortunately it's towards the end of the article where they talk about the importance of diet, and it's hard to argue with the overall content there... particularly the mention of gut bacteria, which is an area I think we're going to hear more and more about in the future.

Perhaps the most depressing thing about the article is that it illustrates just how far we've got to go when studying our complex biological systems. It's easy to get the impression that we understand so much about the human body, but knowing individual components fairly well isn't the same as understanding the whole, particularly when so much of medical history has been from a male POV.

Anyway, it's a long article and I'm adding nothing to it by distracting you here, so I'll shut up!

 

[Jaded'n'faded]

Thanks for posting that @Andrew_McP - it's a fascinating article... and one of the most depressing things I've read in a long time!

None of it surprised me. After I had my son at 37 I was first diagnosed with PN depression but that didn't seem right to me. A few years went by and I got worse, not with mental health problems as such but poor memory and cognition. At times I could barely finish a sentence and would forget things like my neighbour's name or my favourite author, etc. I was convinced I had early onset Alzheimers so I started researching and soon discovered that early menopause was more likely. (But my research helped enormously when my mum's problems started!)

Long story short, but I've been on HRT ever since - I am 59 now. I had a bone scan and there is some damage due to falling oestrogen levels, so I hope the supplements I take will help ward off further deterioration.

But back to the article. My gran had dementia - don't know too much about her medical history though she did have breast cancer. Mum has dementia and had a hysterectomy about 30 odd years ago. (My bits are still intact.) And I got the early meno so it looks like I am pretty much doomed. (Could Alzheimers already be starting in my brain? Did it start when I was 40? Oh god.) I don't eat any of those pretty berries and I smoke, though I'm gonna justify that by saying my stress levels would be through the roof if I didn't, so swings and roundabouts to some extent. p)

The bigger point - about the world being based on the needs of men rather than women is particularly interesting. (I look forward to some heated discussions on this subject with friends in the future!) The importance and effects of hormones in the brain really needs further study with regard to the differences between men and women. I note that the word 'hysteria' has its origins in the Greek word for uterus and it is certainly true that in the early days of 'modern' medicine, it was believed that mental problems in women were womb-related. So perhaps they were actually onto something in recognising the connection between the function of the brain and simply 'being female'.

But twice as many women as men with Alzheimers - oh god! That is certainly not explained by 'women live a few years longer'.

I'll go take my meds now

 

[Canadian Joanne]

That was an extremely interesting article. I have already shared it with several friends. Thank you for posting it.

 

[Sirena]

Thank you for posting the link, interesting theories.

My mother had a bilateral oophorectomy when she was 50 - she had hormone driven breast cancer and this was the treatment for it at the time, along with 10 years of Tamoxifen. She then had cancer again when she was in her late 60s. She was diagnosed with Alzheimers when she was 79. She never smoked, but she lived with a chain smoker for 20 years, the ceilings were brown with nicotine.

It's a case of 'what would you prefer to die of'? I have frequently thought it would have been better for her to have died of something else before getting to this stage.

 

[Lawson58]

It was a very long article but interesting. And it sounds as if now they have the gender specific differences in the rate of Alzheimer's then it has to be menopause. Every woman experiences menopause to different degrees so I think it would be more rewarding to find out why some women don't have the problem. Our nuns again!

Me? Very early menopause but started menstruation also very early so I spent the same number of years from puberty to menopause as most other women do, just the time line was different.

Had a complete hysterectomy a few years later, smoked for about 23 years. I am now 75 years old and started psychological testing for a research study. Psychologist who did the testing, said that she doesn't normally tell people how they went on the tests but that she thought that I should know that I had done really well.

So I should have been showing some signs by now and I know my memory is not as good as it once was but Alzheimer's. Hopefully not!

Two things - Lots of if and maybes in the article and there are numerous other hormones in the body that function quite differently to the one involved in reproduction. What about them?

 

[Andrew_McP]

I think the article caught my attention because Mum had a hysterectomy in the... er... late 80s or early 90s. But as with all things, medical or not, correlation is not causation, so there are no certainties. However, given the dementia weighting towards womem (I didn't realise it was quite so bad) it seems likely that this article's not going to be a million miles from the truth. Well, a truth anyway, in a field which will require a lot more than one.

I don't know the interviewer or subject from Adam (ok, Eve) though, and for all I know someone's going to point to related articles indicating a degree of quackery. It's useful though, even if only as food for thought. I know HRT has had some bad press in terms of raising cancer risk, but nothing's ever simple, is it!

Anyway, I saw that article while someone was discussing this...

"Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1784741728

...which seems to be raising many fascinating/depressing issues. As the child of a self employed woman who raised 4 children pretty much on her own, I was always aware of how hard it could be, especially back then, for women to be taken seriously. But the older I get, the more reasons there seem to be to be embarrassed to be a bloke.

I'd take a little solace in the sacrifices made on D-Day, but if blokes hadn't started it all, there would have been no need for heroes. Messy world! Maybe I should put the blinkers back on and stick to worrying about how to clean the carpets without annoying Mum.

 

[Sirena]

The stats about women/men with Alzheimers is based on those who are diagnosed. At my mother's care home there are about 40 residents and only half a dozen are men.

I wonder if women are more likely to be diagnosed - men are supposedly less likely to go to the GP for anything at all, never mind something like dementia where people tend to be very resistant (my mother was an exception, she practically ran there). It's possible the imbalance may not be as extreme as it appears.