Women’s Health After 40, Part 2

As we delve into how your health changes into your 40’s and beyond we will look at many different aspects of a women’s health.  Let us first see how the lower levels of estrogen and progesterone affect your brain health. You might be feeling like it is hard for you to focus, remember things, or concentrate and you are correct. Your female hormones are responsible for making enough energy in your brain & you get less support for healthy synapses. The synapses are the connections between your brain cells. If they are unhealthy your memory suffers.  Less estrogen means less protection against stress, inflammation, & free radicals. Remember those free radicals are ultra damaging to your cells. Think rusting nail ☹

You also get less regulation of your “feel good” brain chemicals, which means your mood suffers.  The actual memory center of the brain is not supported as well, meaning short term memory problems/forgetful & slower processing of info.  Your brain stem is affected leading to poor temperature regulation & low quality sleep.  The last thing is higher risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s.

Estrogen is naturally protective for the cardiovascular system. Without estrogen, your blood vessels become stiffer leading to higher blood pressure & higher risk of heart disease. Stiffer vessels = your heart working extra hard to pump that blood. Maybe you have always had good cholesterol reading but suddenly they are changing?  Less estrogen leads to lower good cholesterol(HDL), higher bad cholesterol(LDL), & higher triglycerides.

Last part for today is how this affects your bones.  Low estrogen causes your bone cells to breakdown faster than they can rebuild and this means less bone density. It starts with osteopenia/weaker bone and then goes to osteoporosis/brittle bones. You actually can do things to help w/o taking estrogen. No smoking or drinking. Eat calcium rich foods like dark leafy greens or canned fish. We should be getting 1200 mg a day ladies. Minerals such as Vit D, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, & zinc are all necessary. Resistance training & weight bearing exercises are very important to maintain bone strength.  Stay tuned for part 3….