With greater than 24 million folks globally residing with dementia and not using a treatment in sight, there’s plenty of give attention to methods to stop and delay cognitive impairment. A brand new examine means that extreme menopause signs akin to scorching flashes and despair can negatively have an effect on cognitive perform in postmenopausal girls. Outcomes of the examine are printed on-line at present in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.
Along side our getting older inhabitants, dementia diagnoses are on the rise. It’s estimated that 4.6 million new circumstances are identified yearly, which interprets into one particular person being identified with dementia each 7 seconds. Which means dementia circumstances are anticipated to double each 20 years, reaching 81.1 million by 2040.
The excellent news is that medical specialists estimate that 40% of circumstances of Alzheimer’s illness, the commonest type of dementia, could be prevented or, at minimal, delayed. Due to this reality, there’s plenty of curiosity in figuring out danger elements. Latest analysis has centered on the significance of estradiol in feminine cognitive getting older. As a result of the menopause transition is characterised by a decline in estrogen, postmenopausal girls are at an elevated danger of dementia.
A brand new examine involving almost 1,300 late-postmenopausal girls from 9 Latin American nations means that extreme menopause signs akin to scorching flashes, sleep, and temper disturbances have been linked with cognitive impairment. Whether or not successfully treating scorching flashes with hormone remedy or different authorized therapies may also help enhance cognition within the type of reminiscence, consideration, language, and govt perform, is unknown.
Based mostly on these outcomes, the researchers concluded that there’s an intricate interaction between hormonal, life-style, and sociodemographic elements concerned with cognitive well being.
Examine outcomes are printed within the article “Extreme menopausal signs linked to cognitive impairment: an exploratory examine.”
This examine confirmed a possible hyperlink between extreme menopause signs and cognitive impairment in midlife girls. The outcomes additionally counsel a protecting impact of decrease physique mass index, increased instructional degree, bodily train, hormone remedy use, and sexual exercise on cognition, highlighting the potential for focused interventions to guard and protect cognitive perform in menopausal girls.”
Dr. Stephanie Faubion, Medical Director, The Menopause Society
The Menopause Society (previously The North American Menopause Society) is devoted to empowering healthcare professionals and offering them with the instruments and assets to enhance the well being of girls in the course of the menopause transition and past. Because the main authority on menopause since 1989, the nonprofit, multidisciplinary group serves because the impartial, evidence-based useful resource for healthcare professionals, researchers, the media, and the general public and leads the dialog about enhancing girls’s well being and healthcare experiences. To be taught extra, go to menopause.org.