A new study revealed that entering menopause before the age of 40 is associated with an increased risk of infection dementia 35% later in life.
Early menopause, as it’s called, occurs when a woman’s ovaries stop producing hormones and her period ends at age 40, regarding ten years before the typical onset of menopause, which is regarding 52, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Women’s Health..
“What we see in this study is a small association between early menopause and later dementia risk,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association, who was not involved in the study.
Why do women go through early menopause?
Unless a woman undergoes surgery to remove her ovaries and uterus, Lloyd-Jones said, it is regarding faster biological aging of all tissues in the body, including premature aging of our organs and their functions.
“It’s a red flag on so many levels when a woman goes through early menopause that there may be some underlying genetic or health issues that we really need to focus on,” he added.
menopause before age 45
The study, which has not been published but will be presented this week at the 2022 American Heart Association conference, examined data on more than 153,000 women who participated in the UK’s Biobank, an ongoing study that examines the genetic and health information of half a million people living in the UK.
The study found that women who reached menopause before age 45 were 1.3 times more likely to develop early dementia by age 65..
The study indicated that the incidence of certain health conditions in adolescence may be linked to rapid aging in adulthood.
Early menopause, which occurs between the ages of 40 and 45, is categorized separately from early menopause before the age of 40, but both can be caused by many of the same factors: family history and autoimmune disorders, including chronic fatigue syndrome and HIV. HIV and AIDS; chemotherapy or pelvic radiotherapy for cancer; Surgery to remove the ovaries and uterus and smoking.
Functional amenorrhea caused by surgery is less dangerous than biological amenorrhea that occurs early, and it may also be a red flag that other tissues age more quickly, so a woman needs to consult her doctor.
The role of estrogen
When women enter menopause, their estrogen levels drop, which may be one reason for the study findings, said study author Wenting Hao, a doctoral student at Shandong University in Jinan, China..
“We know that long-term estrogen deficiency promotes oxidative stress, which may increase brain aging and lead to cognitive impairment,” Howe said in a statement..”
Oxidative stress occurs when the body’s antioxidant defenses cannot keep up with the excess abundance of radicals, or unstable atoms that can damage cells.
Free radicals occur naturally in the body as a byproduct of cellular metabolism, but levels can be raised by exposure to smoking, environmental toxins, pesticides, dyes, and air pollution..
A number of ways in which women who experience early menopause can reduce their risk of cognitive decline include exercising, participating in recreational and educational activities, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight.
