Studies have shown that “In every 3 seconds, someone in this world develops dementia.” The prevalence of dementia and Alzheimers around the globe is at it’s increasing rate as more than 50 million people worldwide are suffering from the condition as of 2017.
While several studies have been going on over the risk factors and causes of dementia, a new study has shown that one of the causes of high rate of dementia in women is ‘menopause.’
What is Dementia?
Dementia is a generic term for degraded mental ability. It’s not a specific disease and it describes a group of symptoms that are associated with a decline in memory, not able to think clearly that halts the patient’s ability to perform day-to-day activities.
Most consider Dementia and Alzheimer’s as the same form of mental illness but Alzheimer’s is a specific form of dementia characterized by symptoms like impaired speech, confusion and so on. The cause of dementia is yet to be known but there are certain risk factors such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s Disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that can cause dementia.
Menopause Triggers Dementia
Experts have recently found that women going through menopause are at higher risk of developing dementia. A study carried out at the Weill Cornell Medicine research unit in New York City, Y showed that the metabolical changes that occur in the brains of menopausal and perimenopausal women susceptible of developing Dementia and Alzheimer’s soon in the future.
Dr. Lisa Mosconi, the author of the study explained that “after old age, being female is the second most major risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease” and the research have hinted that menopause to be a potential factor for this.
The research measured the glucose brain metabolism of women in menopause and perimenopausal phase and found that they had significantly lower glucose metabolism levels than those who were premenopausal.
