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MEMORY LOSS
Menopause and the Brain: Less Mind over more Matter
Remember who you are but can’t introduce the person you walked in with? Forget the phone number you held in your mind for many years? …Unable to focus or concentrate? Walk into a room and forget what you needed? This frustrating and sometimes embarrassing moment, is a result of the loss of estrogen in the brain. Think of estrogen as the lubrication the mind needs to function.
Symptoms of Memory Loss during Menopause
Thinking Changes
· Losing your train of thought
· Inability to focus
· Forgetting briefly how to get to well known places
· Looking at but not seeing what you are looking for when its right there in front of you.
· Forgetting appointments more or not anticipating events important to you more than in the past
· Forgetting personal history
· Inability to conjure the names of familiar people, places or things
· Making malapropisms
· Reversing first letters of words
· Experiencing “It’s on the tip of my tongue….”
· Reversing whole words while speaking
· Experiencing increased distractibility
· Blinking attention span
· Unable to remember content but able to respond emotionally to stimulus
· Unable to spell words that were once familiar
· Unable to recall what you just did
· Unable to do simple math that was once familiar
· Not handling stress in the same way
· Making behavioral mistakes like putting the butter in the cupboard and the dish in the refrigerator
· Forgetting how to do simple tasks that were once second nature
· Leaving out or reversing letters in written words
· Forgetting history that you need to recall
· Changing reading skill in visually “seeing” and comprehending reading material
Excerpted from Claire Warga PhD, Menopause and the Mind by Claire Warga, PhD., Touchstone 1999, pages 7-9
Estrogen and the Brain
In Gail Sheehy’s Silent Passage, she quotes Barbara Sherwin, associate professor of psychology in the university’s obstetrics-gynecology department and co director of the menopausal clinic at Mc Gill University menopause Clinic in Montréal Canada.
Dr. Sherwin has been doing studies for more than a decade on several hundred women of all stages of life. They are given standardized neuropsychological tests when they are estrogen rich and when they are estrogen deprived. “The results are clear. Estrogen helps maintain verbal memory and it enhances a woman’s capacity for new learning.” Says Dr. Sherwin.
“There is no part of the brain that escapes the influence of the ovarian hormones.” Says
Dr. Bruce McEwen, Director of the laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at New York’s Rockefeller University in Claire Warga’s Menopause and the Mind.
Dr. Dominque Toran –Allerand of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeon is a highly regarded neurobiologist / researcher who has been studying the role of estrogen since the 1970s. Her astounding research links lack of estrogen to brain deterioration. “People worry about bone density and coronary artery disease in the postmenopausal state, but they should also be worrying about what’s happening to the brain’s neurons.”
“Dr. Toran- Allerand studied the dendritic spines in the brains of female rats during the natural estrus cycle, which is similar to the human menstrual cycle. Dendrites are necessary for optimal communication between neurons. She found that these neurons recede as the levels of estrogen decreases. Interestingly, when the hormone levels were increased, the spines were able to grow again. She designated the neurons involved with reproduction and cognition as sensitive to estrogen levels.
To visualize the neuronal growth-promoting effects of estrogen (17beta-estradiol) Dominique Toran –Allerand and her colleagues cultured thin slices of tissue excised from the rat forebrain with or without supplemental hormone. In the cultures lacking significant amounts of estrogen (panel A) the cells survive but do not show much development. In contrast, when the researchers add estrogen (17 beta –estradiol Panel B) to the cell culture media, the axons and dendrites undergo extensive growth and differentiation.
“The Women’s Health Initiative Study never really considered the brain,” said Toran –Allerand. “I find it quite disquieting because you could be in the greatest of health but if your brain is gone, as in Alzheimer’s disease, it won’t do you much good. It is estimated that of the women who live to 90, 50 % will have Alzheimer’s. But of those who have been on estrogen, only 10% will develop the disease.”
Dr. Toran-Allerand strongly feels that the dosage of estrogen should mimic the natural cycle of the female, reflecting the 21 days of estrogen, flowed by 12 days of estrogen plus progesterone, followed by 4 days of no hormones. She feels this would maximize the benefits of estrogen on the brain, and prevent the damaging effects of estrogen alone.”
Excerpted from, Rabiya Tuma, “Concern Rises Over Estrogen’s Undeserved Bad Rap,” BrainWork The Neuroscience Newsletter, September-October 2002, pages 3-4.
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What to Eat
You can slow the aging process by adding antioxidants such as:
Beta Carotene
Sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, spinach, turnip greens, winter squash, collard greens, cilantro, and fresh thyme. Eat these raw or lightly steamed
Selenium
Brazil nuts, tunafish, oysters, flounder, turkey, chicken, wheat germ, brown rice, oatmeal, eggs, sunflower seeds, shrimp, and garlic (depending upon the soil).
Zinc
Meats, seafood (especially oysters), and liver are the richest sources; brewer’s yeast, milk and other dairy products, beans, and wheat germ also supply some zinc. Water contains small amounts, too.
Vitamin C
Guava Red Bell Pepper Papaya, Orange juice, from frozen concentrate, Orange, Broccoli, Green bell pepper, Kohlrabi, Strawberries, Grapefruit, Cantaloupe, Tomato juice, Mango, Tangerine, Potato, baked with skin, Cabbage greens, frozen, boiled, Spinach, raw
Vitamin E
Whole fresh eggs, oil: almond oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, wheat germ oil, vegetable oil spray, tomato juice, apple with skin on , mango raw, pasta enriched, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachio nuts, walnuts, mayonnaise, avocado, asparagus, spinach, sweet potato, turnip, raw tomato
Vitamin B complex: Improves memory
B1 - Thiamine.
fortified breads, cereals, pasta, whole grains (especially wheat germ), lean meats (especially pork), fish, dried beans, peas, and soybeans.
B2 – Riboflavin
Lean meats, eggs, legumes, nuts, green leafy vegetables, dairy products, and milk provide riboflavin in the diet. Breads and cereals are often fortified with riboflavin. Because riboflavin is destroyed by exposure to light, foods with riboflavin should not be stored in glass containers that are exposed to light.
Niacin
dairy products, poultry, fish, lean meats, nuts, and eggs. Legumes and enriched breads and cereals also supply some niacin.
B-6 Pyridoxine
beans, nuts, legumes, eggs, meats, fish, whole grains, and fortified breads and cereals.
B-9 Folacin
beans and legumes citrus fruits and juices wheat bran and other whole grains dark green leafy vegetables poultry, pork, shellfish liver
B-12
Vitamin B12 is found in eggs, meat, poultry, shellfish, and milk and milk products.
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