by Experts have long known that women have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. They are affected twice as often as men.
Now scientists say that they are on the way to understand why this is the case – and two strong differences between men and women. First, women have different chromosomes than men. They are also subject to menopause: a process that appears when a woman’s reproductive hormones naturally decrease from 40s and 50s.
According to the Alzheimer Association with Alzheimer’s or another dement, every third older American dies. Almost two thirds of the Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women.
“We see epidemiologically that there are differences in the number of biological women and men affected in almost all neurological diseases,” said Anna Bonkhoff, Resident and Research Fellow in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham, recently in an interview. “For example, there is a tendency in [multiple sclerosis] And migraines so that more women are affected, while it is the opposite for brain tumors and Parkinson’s. “
“Based on these numbers, they only have the feeling that something is based on this difference in biology,” she added.
When women look into the body while women have two “X” thermosomes, men have an “X” and a “y”. Chromosomes are thread-like DNA structures in our cells that carry hundreds or even thousands of genes. Genes determine the physical properties of a person. Differences between genes that are kept in the X and Y chromosomes can give women an increased probability of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Recent studies have shown that genes on X chromosome are related to the Alzheimer disease, including women with Alzheimer’s who live longer than men with the disease due to their second X chromosome.
“Many genes for the immune system and the regulation of the brain structure are located in the X chromosome, so that the doses differ up to a certain degree between men and women. That seems to have an effect,” said Bonkhoff.
The different dominant hormones of women – such as estrogen who act on the brain – could also play a role.
“Menopause is part of the puzzle, probably one of the larger ones,” said Bonkhoff. “I don’t say that it is the only one – age is relevant for yourself, and there are many interesting studies that examine what has an effect on aging with the immune system that affects cognitive changes.”
During the menopause, when ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone, some women turn to hormone replacement therapy. Practice offers relief for symptoms of a lower hormone level in menopause such as hot flashes. For some women, however, this can increase their risk of dangerous diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, blood clots and gallbladder diseases, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases.
According to Rachel Buckley, Associate Professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School, women who have received a hormone replacement after 70 years have also significantly higher protein values. The accumulation of Tau is a license plate of Alzheimer’s disease. They also suffered a higher cognitive decline.
Buckley published these results in the journal last March Science progress. However, further examinations are required to understand these associations.
“We work with many secondary data that are already existing, and that’s great, but there are restrictions on what we can do with it,” said Buckley. “We try to see if we can set up a new study design in which we can really look at the time of menopause, which changes in the blood, which changes in the brain, which changes in perception and how this could be associated with a later risk of life.”
