As defined by neuroscientist, nutritionist, and affiliate director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D., in a mindbodygreen podcast episode, reproductive hormones play an enormous position in defending our brains from harm (such because the amyloid plaques related to Alzheimer’s illness).
“The interactions between the brain and the reproductive organs are really crucial for brain health and brain aging—especially in women,” she says. “We tend to think of testosterone [and] estrogens as involved in reproduction, having kids. But in reality, these hormones have a lot of effects inside our brains.”
“In particular, they literally push our neurons to bring glucose to make energy. So if your hormones are high, your brain energy is high. But then what happens to testosterone is that it doesn’t quite decline that much over time; whereas for women, estrogens pretty much plummet when women go through menopause,” Mosconi shares.
It’s this plummet in estrogen that leaves girls’s brains particularly weak once they hit menopause of their 40s or 50s. “If you think of these hormones as having some kind of superpowers for the brain, women lose the super power around the time that menopause hits, right? And the brain is left a little more vulnerable,” Mosconi says.
Like menopause, having your uterus or ovaries eliminated (i.e., a hysterectomy or oophorectomy) additionally leads to a drastic drop in estrogen ranges. Other durations of hormonal fluctuations—akin to puberty and being pregnant—affect estrogen ranges as properly, which explains why some hormonal well being elements depart girls at larger threat whereas others assist shield their brains.