Usually, menopause is estimated to occur around the age of 50. But many women experience it early, sometimes even before the age of 40. However, according to research published by the American Heart Association, reported by Neuroscience News, the latter would be more at risk of developing dementia than the others. Explanations.
35% more risk
By dementia, we mean of course the most well-known disease in this field: Alzheimer’s disease. But not only. As a reminder, dementia can have different causes, such as blood clots which would have deprived the brain of oxygen in places or attacks which would have caused cerebral hematomas.
The researchers were interested in a British cohort and more particularly in the examinations of 153,291 women with an average age of 60 years. They studied their cases and calculated the link that there could be between the fact of being menopausal early and the risk of seeing one’s cognitive abilities decline with age. After having sorted the antecedents, the habits in terms of tobacco… it emerged that for women who had gone through menopause before age 40, researchers estimated a 35% increased risk of dementia. After age 45, the risk is 1.3 times higher than for postmenopausal women at a more normal age (50/51).
Take care of your vascular health
This is mainly due to vascular health, which is better before reaching menopause than after. “As long as we still have menstrual cycles, we have less risk of having a stroke”, underlines the study.. However, stroke is one of the causes of dementia because it disrupts blood flow to the brain. After menopause, estrogen levels drop, which may explain the increased risk of dementia, the researchers note.
That said, we know ways to limit the risk of stroke: by having a healthy lifestyle, by not smoking, by not drinking alcohol, by playing sports… The study has by elsewhere a shaded part. The women there are declared menopausal but we do not know under what conditions: naturally or following illnesses, operations, etc.?
Sources : Neuroscience News, American Heart Association
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- Early menopause triples the risk of health problems
- 9 sports to keep exercising (especially) after menopause
- What are the first signs of premenopause?
