4 ms·
Women are twice as likely as men to get Alzheimer's. The two current prevailing theories are, both of which focus on the amyloid hypothesis are 1) menopause c
by pedalpete 1y ago
Women are twice as likely as men to get Alzheimer's.
The two current prevailing theories are, both of which focus on the amyloid hypothesis are
1) menopause changes in grey matter reduce the glymphatic systems ability to flush metabolic waste from the brain
2) sleep loss during child-rearing and menopause result in increased amyloid load, which begins the cycle of reduced ability of the glymphatic system to remove waste from the brain.
I know someone is going to come in complaining about the amyliod hypothesis, but it is unlikely to be "wrong", it is just incomplete. We are likely lumping multiple different diseases together under the label of Alzheimer's because we don't understand the disease well enough yet.
- missedthecue 1y agoInterestingly, research, including UK biobank data with massive sample sizes, has proven many times that childless women are at considerably higher risk for dementia and Alzheimer's than women with 1-4 children.
- pedalpete 1y agoI hadn't seen that. I'll take a closer look. Thanks
- genewitch 1y agoDo you have anything that shows the link to sleep disorders and menopause? And if you happen to know, does that apply to artificial menopause, where the organs have been removed, and then you go through menopause directly afterward?
- Qem 1y ago> sleep loss during child-rearing and menopause The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea is much larger in men than in women. If sleep loss were the only factor we probably would see greater dementia incidence in men, due to long-term chronic sleep loss from OSA.