Womens health issue could increase dementia risk [Video]

An estimated 80% of women have some type of menopause symptoms — and the more symptoms they experience, the greater the chances of developing dementia later in life.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS One following a study by the University of Calgary.

The researchers analyzed the data of 896 postmenopausal women who participated in the Canadian Platform for Research Online to Investigate Health, Quality of Life, Cognition, Behaviour, Function, and Caregiving in Aging (CAN-PROTECT) study.

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The women reported their perimenopausal symptoms to researchers. Their cognitive function was measured using the Everyday Cognition (ECog-II) Scale and the Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MBI-C), with higher scores indicating greater severity.

Those with greater menopausal symptoms had higher scores for both cognitive tests, indicating more severe decline. 

“One of the most interesting findings was the association between menopausal symptom burden and mild behavioral impairment (MBI) symptoms — a syndrome increasingly recognized as an early …