Early menopause may raise risk of dementia later in life

Date:
March 2, 2022
Source:
American Heart Association
Summary:
Compared with women who enter menopause around age 50, women who
experience very early menopause (before the age of 40) were found
to be 35% more likely to develop some type of dementia later in
life, according to a large study of women living in the United
Kingdom. Women who entered menopause before age 45 were also 1.3
times more likely to develop dementia before the age of 65. In
addition, women who entered menopause later, at age 52 or older,
had dementia risk similar to women who entered menopause at the
average age for menopause onset which is the age of 50 to 51 years.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Women who enter menopause very early, before age 40, were found to be
more likely to develop dementia of any type later in life compared to
women who begin menopause at the average menopause-onset age of 50 to 51
years, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American
Heart Association's Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference 2022.

The meeting will be held in-person in Chicago and virtually Tuesday,
March 1 - - Friday, March 4, 2022,.


==========================================================================
"Our study found that women who enter menopause very early were at
greater risk of developing dementia later in life," said Wenting Hao,
M.D., a Ph.D.

candidate at Shandong University in Jinan, China. "Being aware of this increased risk can help women practice strategies to prevent dementia
and to work with their physicians to closely monitor their cognitive
status as they age." Dementia involves serious changes in the brain
that impair a person's ability to remember, make decisions and use
language. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia,
while the second most common is vascular dementia, which is the result
of disruptions in blood flow to brain cells caused by strokes or plaque build-up in arteries supplying blood to the brain. Both of these types
of dementia are more common with age. Diseases affecting specific parts
of the brain can also lead to dementia, and a person can have dementia
due to more than one disease process.

In the current study, the researchers analyzed the potential relationship between age at menopause onset and the diagnosis of dementia from
any cause.

Health data was examined for 153,291 women who were an average age of
60 years when they became participants in the UK Biobank (between 2006
and 2010) were examined. The UK Biobank is a large biomedical database
that includes genetic and health information on a half million people
living in the United Kingdom.

The investigators identified the diagnosis of all types of dementia
including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and dementias from
other causes. They calculated risk of occurrence in terms of the age
at which the women reported having entered menopause, compared with
the women who began menopause at average age of menopause onset, which
is 50-51 years (51 years is the average age for menopause onset among
women in the U.S.). The results were adjusted for factors including
age at last exam, race, educational level, cigarette and alcohol use,
body mass index, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, income and leisure
and physical activities.

The analysis found:
* Women who entered menopause before the age of 40 were 35% more
likely to
have been diagnosed with dementia.

* Women who entered menopause before the age of 45 were 1.3 times more
likely to have been diagnosed with dementia before they were 65
years old (called presenile or early-onset dementia).

* Women who entered menopause at age 52 or older had similar rates of
dementia to those women who entered menopause at average age of
menopause onset, which is the age of 50-51 years.

Although post-menopausal women are at greater risk of stroke than pre- menopausal women, and stroke can disrupt blood flow to the brain and may
result in vascular dementia, in this study the researchers did not find
an association between age at menopause and the risk of vascular dementia.



========================================================================== "Dementia can be prevented, and there are a number of ways women
who experience early menopause may be able to reduce their risk of
dementia. This includes routine exercise, participation in leisure and educational activities, not smoking and not drinking alcohol, maintaining
a healthy weight, getting enough vitamin D and, if recommended by their physician, possibly taking calcium supplements," Hao said.

The researchers suggest that lowered estrogen levels may be a factor in
the possible connection between early menopause and dementia.

"We know that the lack of estrogen over the long term enhances oxidative stress, which may increase brain aging and lead to cognitive impairment,"
Hao said.

Health care clinicians who care for women should be aware of a woman's
age at menopause onset and closely monitor for cognitive decline in
those who reached menopause before age 45.

"Further research is needed to assess the added value of including
the timing of menopause as a predictor in existing dementia models,"
Hao said. "This may provide clinicians with a more accurate way
to assess a woman's risk for dementia." The study has several
limitations. Researchers relied on women's self-reported information
about their age at menopause onset. In addition, the researchers did
not analyze dementia rates in women who had a naturally occurring early menopause separate from the women with menopause induced by surgery
to remove the ovaries, which may affect the results. The data used for
this study included mostly white women living in the U.K. and may not generalize to other populations.

special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Heart_Association. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


==========================================================================


Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302131326.htm

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