The odds are not favorable for women when it comes to contracting Alzheimer’s Disease.  Women contract AD earlier in their lifespan, and unquestionably much more frequently (try two times more) than their male counterparts.  Interestingly, not until the 8th decade (your eighties) does the rates of AD balance out between the different sexes, at which times your odds of getting AD at this point in your lifespan becomes identical for both men and women.

Fact: Being biologically Female doubles your Alzheimer’s risk – and here’s possibly why:

Study upon study finds that an increased risk of Alzheimer’s is linked to Menopause.

Furthermore, the spike in cases for women seems to have been kickstarted by the 2000 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) that recommended that women discontinue hormone replacement therapy (HRT) based on one rogue study that suggested hormone replacement caused cancer and heart disease in women.  The HRT ban happened instantly and worldwide.  And 10-15 years later, we begin to see a significant spike in Alzheimer’s diagnosis and deaths in our female population.  That 2000 study has since been replicated over and over and over again – and not one of those follow-up studies has shown that HRT yields the same heightened risk for cancer and/or heart disease.  Yet doctors worldwide continue to deny women the right to receive the estrogen and progesterone that their bodies are deficient in.

Now, there still remains a very serious concern within the medical community regarding prescribing HRT to women with a history of cancer or heart disease.  In fact, the women in the earliest study who developed cancer and heart disease had not been selected out of the study (which is why it is considered a flawed study).  That valuable data though, raises concern for this subset of women who are at a greater risk due to their underlying conditions or genetic propensity. In those instances, it would be critical to consult with your medical doctor on alternatives to HRT that can boost your estrogen levels – such as gaining more of this hormone naturally from your food.  Here’s an article regarding the eight foods high in estrogen that you may find interesting. (2)  

Good to know:  Menapause is caused by the full depletion of eggs from a woman’s ovaries – as women are born with the total number of eggs they will cycle through, a woman’s predicted age of Menapause is controlled by 1) age of first period  2) age when her last egg is released 3) whether she has received any fertility treatment that would expedite entrance into menapause. (1)   And of course, as genes play a role, looking to your mother’s path toward menopause will serve as a guide to the approximate age you will enter into menopause yourself. 

We will be publishing a blog post soon on Menapause and how this hormone deficiency syndrome impacts a woman’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s Disease.  So check back or subscribe to our blogsite to catch it when it comes out.  

(1)  Postmenopausal syndrome  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539866/

(2)  Top Foods High in Estrogen  https://www.webmd.com/diet/foods-high-in-estrogen