Almost 70% of new Alzheimer’s sufferers will be women. What makes this fact even more alarming, according to the Women’s Brain Health Initiative is that there is little understanding of why.  AND why there are few studies currently being undertaken to explore the discrepancy!

A newly created organization, The Women’s Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) intends to change that (www.womensbrainhealth.org). WBHI is dedicated to raising funds for research and education on women’s aging brains. 

Consider these research findings:

 — Women seem to be more prone to dementia and depression, yet neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease strike more men. 

— A US neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Amen compared 26,000 brain scans; women had increased activity-shown by blood flow – in 112 of the 128 regions measured. But more active does not mean better, he says.  ‘Male and female brains are different.  Women have busy brains; men’s are a lot quieter.  (we knew that!!) One pattern is not better than the other, they are just different.’ * source (WBHI)

—  You are more likely to inherit Alzheimer’s disease from your mother than you are from your father.

— Excitable brains give women migraines. Migraines affect up to three times more women than men-usually attributed to fluctuations in hormones.  But research conducted by Dr. Andrew Charles, director of the headache research and treatment program at the University of California, sites another factor—the stimulus to light.  Men need three times greater stimulus to light than women to produce the same effect.

 Much of the research on women’s brains is relatively new.  There is still so much to learn.   I intend to keep you updated on the work this valuable organization is doing and on ways to help keep our brains healthy.   If you want to get in contact with WBHI, sign up for their newsletter, or to donate, visit their website, www.womensbrainhealth.org