News Section | Women Health
Estrogen `preserves cognitive function in obese postmenopausal women`
It is known that obesity not only increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, but also results in the decline of mental abilities, including memory, language, and thought-processing speed.
However, a new study of 300 post-menopausal women has found that obese participants performed better on three cognitive tests than participants of normal weight, leading researchers to speculate about the role of sex hormones and cognition.
Lead author Judith M. Zilberman, MD, of the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry’s Department of Physiology, and the Instituto Cardiovascular de Buenos Aires, Argentina, says that these results may be attributable to the female sex hormone estrogen stored and released by fat cells.
Of 300 study participants, 158 women (52.6 percent) were classified as obese either because of their waist circumference or body mass index (BMI). The average of the women in the group was 59.8 years.
The women took three cognitive exams – the mini-mental statement examination to evaluate the global cognitive status, a clock-drawing test to determine the women’s executive functions (planning, problem-solving, verbal reasoning) and the Boston Abbreviated Test to assess the women’s memory.
The researchers found that BMI was positively correlated with higher levels of cognition.
“Where there is increased adipose tissue, there is increased estrogen,” said Dr. Zilberman.
“My hypothesis is that estrogen may be protective of cognitive function in this case,” she added.
Zilberman said that the possibility that naturally occurring estrogen from a woman’s own fat cells may help preserve cognition flies in the face of current medical advice.
“Based on previous studies, many research institutions have decided against recommending estrogens as a preventive intervention in cognitive impairment or dementia. That’s what makes our findings so important,” she said.
The findings were recently presented at the Physiology of Cardiovascular Disease: Gender Disparities conference at the University of Mississippi in Jackson.
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Obesity does NOT preserve cognitive function, regardless of what this little study says. Last year, scientists showed that central adiposity (a gut) in midlife raised dementia risk in later life. Also, HIGH estrogen in older individuals is linked with cognitive decline and dementia, and this applies to men and women. In fact the higher the blood levels of estrogen the greater rate of hippocampal atrophy. If women in this study were indeed performing better, you have to wonder if treatment for conditions related to their obesity (sigh as antihypertensives, etc.) was helping them perform better on cognitive tests.