The 2 Shocking Reasons Alzheimer’s Affects Men and Women Differently, Scientists Say
Stressful events, specifically the death of a partner or unemployment/financial loss, can impact brain health.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, currently affecting more than 7 million Americans—or, 1 in 9 people age 65 and older, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. This is why so many researchers are looking into both preventative measures and treatments for the disease. As for the former, there’s no definitive answer, but experts do know that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, excess consumption of sugar and saturated fats, and loneliness are all risk factors for Alzheimer’s. The good news is that most of these things are within our control. However, a new study finds two shocking reasons why Alzheimer’s risk increases differently in men and women—and, unfortunately, they’re mostly beyond our control.
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A new study looked at how stressful situations affect the brain.
A new study published in the journal Neurology found that stressful events, specifically the death of a partner or unemployment/financial loss, can impact brain health differently based on gender and education level.
To arrive at their findings, researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Centre (BBRC) analyzed the health data of 1,290 people from the ALFA (ALzheimer’s and FAmilies) cohort at the BBRC, a research platform created to study brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s. The participants had no cognitive impairment at the start of the study, but most of them had a family history of Alzheimer’s. They ranged in age from 48 to 77.
“Using magnetic resonance imaging, we studied the differences in grey matter volume in the brain and analyzed Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid, such as beta-amyloid protein,” explained Eleni Palpatzis, a pre-doctoral researcher at ISGlobal and first author of the study, in a press release.
To put this in context, grey matter is a type of brain tissue that affects, “mental functions, memory, emotions, and movement,” notes Cleveland Clinic. In the brain of someone with Alzheimer’s, abnormal levels of beta-amyloid proteins “clump together to form plaques that disrupt cell function,” explains the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Such proteins cause cells within grey matter to die, as do others called tau protein and neurogranin. Oftentimes, this can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Death of a partner and financial stress affect brain markers associated with Alzheimer’s.
The researchers found that participants who suffered the death of a partner exhibited the following brain changes:
- Indicators of greater beta-amyloid proteins—more pronounced in men and those with lower levels of education
- Higher levels of tau and neurogranin proteins—more pronounced in women and those with lower levels of education
Next, the researchers found that financial stress also affected participants’ brains:
- Unemployment led to a lower grey matter volume in brain regions responsible for emotional and cognitive regulation—more pronounced in men
- Economic losses also led to a lower grey matter volume in brain regions responsible for emotional and cognitive regulation—more pronounced in women
“Men seem to be more negatively affected by the loss of a partner (which affects amyloid-related proteins) and unemployment (which reduces grey matter). This may be because men tend to have fewer close relationships, making the loss of a partner more isolating, so the loss of a partner is more isolating for them, and because unemployment carries a greater social stigma for men,” said senior study author Eider Arenaza-Urquijo, ISGlobal researcher.
She continued, “On the other hand, women seem more vulnerable to financial difficulties, which affect grey matter volume. This could be related to the fact that women have historically had less financial security, and that they tend to report higher levels of economic concern, which negatively impacts their overall mental well-being.”
It should be noted that 99 percent of the study participants were White, which is imporant because, as the Alzheimer’s Assocation states, “older Black Americans are twice as likely as older Whites to have Alzheimer’s or another dementia.”
Therefore, the researchers acknowledge that “future research examining whether these results generalize to individuals from more diverse backgrounds is needed.”
