Considering how annoying menstruation is, many people who suffer from it would like to have an on/off button. Only turn it on when they want to reproduce and turn it off for the rest of their lives. However, the truth is that menstruation is not only useful for this purpose. In fact, according to a recent study conducted University College Londonmenstruation for many years can reduce risk of dementia.
This means that those women who had their first period very soon, very late menopause or preferably both they have one better brain health in this aspect.
Previous studies conducted on this topic showed conflicting results. However, this is, according to its authors, the largest study that has been conducted to date. It contains data from 273,260 women, so much more extensive information was obtained. The findings indicate that it is possible cumulative effect of estrogen They perform a protective role. The reasons are not entirely clear, but it is nevertheless an outcome that should be taken into account when making certain medical decisions.
Tell me how many years you’ve had your period and I’ll tell you how much risk you have for developing dementia.
The data analyzed in this study belonged to women registered in UK Biobank. This is a file containing medical records and analytical data from a large number of people who voluntarily provided them. This is very useful for all types of research as it avoids the need to recruit volunteers specifically for a particular study.
In this case, women’s brain health was taken into account by comparing it with the age at which they had their first period (menarche) And last (menopause).
If menarche has occurred in 15 yearsThe study found a 12% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those who had their first period at a younger age. On the other hand, those women who have reached menopause with more than 50 years They were 24% less likely to develop dementia. If, in addition, many years of menstruation with early menarche and late menopause had accumulated, then the difference was especially significant.
What is this data for?
There were two pieces of information that caught the researchers’ attention. On the one hand, an increased risk of dementia with early menopause occurred regardless of whether it arose from natural causes or as a result of operation.
And, on the other hand, they saw that hormone replacement therapy given to people with menopause did not have a protective effect.
The first piece of information is important when deciding whether to perform certain operations. Many operations in which the uterus and ovaries are removed are carried out preventively, with benign lesions. Therefore, if this continues to be confirmed, it would be very important to calculate benefit/risk balancealso taking into account the risk of dementia.
As for the second fact, it may indicate that these results have nothing to do with estrogens. However, this does not seem to be the case. In fact, it has been proven that brains of dead women With Alzheimer’s disease Their estrogen levels are lower than normal. And also that exposure to estradiol Over the years, the volume of gray matter increases. This refers to areas of the nervous system formed by neurons whose axons are not covered with myelin. Things like communication or memory are controlled in this part of the nervous system, so deterioration is associated with dementia.
For some reason, when estrogen is given exogenous, as with replacement therapy during menopause, do not work in the same way. But that doesn’t mean they don’t naturally play a role in protecting against dementia. There is growing evidence that it does protect.
Should study more
These results make it clear that further research into the protective role of estrogens is necessary. You should also analyze why Replacement therapy does not help.
But above all, this points to the importance of studies with women and other menstruating people. Although the risk of developing dementia is much higher in women, most studies, to no one’s surprise, have been conducted using the brains of men or male experimental animals.
Therefore, more research needs to be done and more consideration needs to be given to the people most affected by this disease. This may seem obvious, but it is clearly important to remember.
Source: Hiper Textual
