How Pregnancy May Affect the Risk of Alzheimer ’s

In the U.S., two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s disease are women, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. For decades, experts have explained the gender divide by the fact that women also tend to live longer than men, and the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s is age. “Everyone brushed it off to the fact that women were living longer,” says Rachel Whitmer, professor of epidemiology at University of California Davis. “Now science is saying, wait, that’s not the end of the story.” Pregnancy, according to two of the latest studies on the issue, may have something to do with it. The new studies come to opposite conclusions about pregnancy and the risk of dementia. One study found that the more children a woman had, the lower her risk of developing dementia, while another found that having five or more children was tied to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. Both studies—though their findings conflict—point to the need for more studies investigating the under-researched area. Whitmer and her colleague Paola Gilsanz, a staff scientist from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, presented data on their study at the annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association. They analyzed health information from more than 14,500 women who were members of Kaiser Permanente from the 1960s to 2017. They tracked the women’s reproductive milestones, including their first period, the number of children and miscarriages...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Brain healthytime Source Type: news