#24: Protecting Your Brain During Menopause

Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you were there? Lost your train of thought during a conversation? Forgotten a name you know you should remember?

If so, you are not alone.

Many women experience changes in memory, focus, and concentration during perimenopause and menopause. These changes can be frustrating, but they are also common. In this episode, we explore why these cognitive changes occur, the important role estrogen plays in brain health, and practical lifestyle strategies that can help support your brain during midlife.

You'll learn how declining estrogen affects the brain and why researchers are paying closer attention to the connection between menopause, cognitive health, and Alzheimer's disease. Most importantly, you'll discover evidence informed, everyday habits that can help protect your brain and support long term cognitive wellness.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why many women experience brain fog during menopause
• How estrogen supports healthy brain function
• The connection between menopause and cognitive health
• Why movement and strength training are essential for brain health
• How blood sugar balance influences memory, focus, and mental clarity
• The critical role sleep plays in brain repair and memory
• How chronic inflammation impacts cognitive function
• Why lifelong learning helps create new neural pathways
• The importance of stress management for protecting your brain

Six Ways to Support Your Brain During Menopause

1. Move your body regularly through walking, strength training, and other physical activity.
2. Balance your blood sugar by prioritizing protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and fiber rich foods.
3. Protect your sleep because your brain performs essential repair and cleanup while you rest.
4. Reduce inflammation through an anti inflammatory lifestyle that includes nutritious foods, regular movement, and stress reduction.
5. Challenge your brain by learning new skills, reading, solving puzzles, or memorizing scripture.
6. Manage stress through prayer, meditation, deep breathing, time in nature, and meaningful relationships.

Key Takeaway

Your brain is not separate from the rest of your body.

The food you eat, the quality of your sleep, your daily movement, your stress levels, and your relationships all work together to influence your brain health.

While you cannot control every aspect of aging, you can make choices each day that help support healthy cognitive function for years to come.

Reflection Question

What is one thing you can begin doing this week to better support your brain?

Small, consistent actions often lead to the greatest transformation.

Resources

If you're looking for a whole person approach to navigating menopause through functional nutrition and lifestyle strategies, I'd love to connect with you.

To learn more about our program visit our website at

https://www.happinessinyoucoach.com/menopause-elite-program/

Also, if you are a woman going through peri-menopause, menopause, or post menopause and would like to be a part of our mailing list to stay updated about programs, resources, and more, send a message to ksmith@happinessinyoucoach.com and type in the subject line, e-mail list.

Don’t forget to download and share this podcast with other woman. This allows woman that need support to find this podcast more easily.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to menopause Breakthrough, the podcast for professional women who want to reclaim their clarity, energy, and balance while navigating perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause. I'm your host, Katina Smith, your menopause and wellness coach, and I also am a certified functional nutrition practitioner where I use nutrition and lifestyle to support women in this stage of life. I know firsthand how challenging this season can be physically, mentally, and emotionally, and what it's like to feel stressed and maybe even a little burnt out. Here you'll find education, strategies, and encouragement to help you thrive at work, at home, and in life. So let's dive in. Hello my friends, and welcome back to the show. Well, today I want to talk about something that many women think about but may not openly discuss, and that is brain health. Um, you know, have you just ever walked in a room and forgotten why you were there? Or maybe you have forgotten a name that you know you should know, or a place, and it's just at the tip of your tongue, but you just can't remember, or maybe you lost your train of thought in the middle of a conversation. Well, if you've experienced this, you're not alone. Um, many women going through menopause have had these things happen, and even it tends to happen as we age for different reasons. But for women, you know, going through menopause, um perimenopause, they have reported having changes in their memory and concentration, um, you know, as well as focus. And, you know, sometimes it can feel a little bit frustrating, really understanding, you know, what is really happening to you, but they've done a lot of research on brain health and they're really focusing in now on uh the menopause um case and how that relates to um women going through menopause. And according to research, you know, we know that estrogen, of course, plays much more um of a role in our health and just regulating our reproductive system. It actually helps um support communication between our brain cells, but it also helps, you know, with inflammation, um, it helps protect our brain cells from damage, and it even helps the brain produce and use energy efficiently. And on the flip side of that, that's why you hear many women, you know, saying things like um they don't have energy um or they feel really tired. Um, and that's with the shift in um estrogen, all of these things tend to occur often all at one time. And um, as estrogen levels decline during uh menopause, you know, those protective effects begin to decrease. And researchers are now really paying um even close attention to how um Alzheimer's disease relates to menopause. And before, you know you say anything, I'm not trying to put fear in you. This is just for education. Um, I know that there are so many different ways to support the big, um, nor am I speaking that that's going to happen to anyone, you know, in terms of you know getting Alzheimer's disease. This is just more about just letting you know the changes that are happening in the body and how it affects um the brain, because there are just so many ways to support our brains naturally as we go through this phase of life. And there's a few things I want to share with you about how you can support your brain health uh during menopause. Um, the first is, and you've heard these things before, but um just breaking it down more um specifically as it relates to brain health. But you know, this is one reason why exercise is one of the most, I would say, powerful things you can do for your brain. And when you exercise, your body produces something called BDNF, and it's basically um it stands for brain-derived uh neurotrophic uh factor. And you can think of BDNF as like fertilizer for the brain, for example. Um, it helps brain cells grow, um connect as well as communicate, and things like uh strength training, um, that's really good because it supports your blood sugar levels, um, your hormones, um, your muscle mass, and definitely your brain function. And so just taking a daily walk, you can see great benefits from walking um as it relates to your brain health. Um, the other is, of course, our blood sugar, which I have shared before on other podcasts, um it affects our brain as well because when when our blood sugar levels are constantly elevated and spiking, it actually increases um inflammation in the body. And our blood vessels actually can be damaged when this continuously happens. And the brain depends on a steady supply of energy. And this is why I encourage women to really focus in on you know their diet and eating, getting enough protein in their diet and the healthy fats and vegetables, as well as uh foods that are rich in fiber. And so when we stabilize our blood sugar, we often see improvements in our energy, our mood and focus, as well as just our overall cognitive function. And again, of course, you know, there could be other things going on in the body that is impacting, you know, our brain health. Um, but you know, it's really still important to be mindful of what you're putting in your body, what you're eating. Um, again, sleep is really critical as well. And I know many women struggle with sleep during menopause, you know, the hot flashes, you know, racing thoughts where you just are just having a challenge, just falling asleep because there's so much going on in your mind. Um, and you know, the hot the um night sweats and you know, just stress, you know, those things can really keep you from getting a good night's sleep. But sleep is, you know, when we get sleep, adequate sleep, that's when the brain performs just important, you know, what I call those housekeeping functions, um, especially during um deep sleep, um, the brain is removing waste products and it also supports um memory consolidation. So, in other words, it's sleep is not just about you know getting rest, it's about a time of repair in the brain. So if you're struggling um with sleep, um, the key is really figuring out what is really going on in your body, what is keeping you from sleeping, whether it's cortisol, high cortisol, insulin, um, it could be a multitude of things. Um, how you're preparing yourself for bread for bed, um, for example. Uh, the fourth area I want to just discuss briefly is managing inflammation in the body, because really inflammation is normal. Some level of inflammation in the body is normal. But when you have too much inflammation when it's chronic, it can lead to all sorts of you know sickness and disease in the body, but especially you know, for a person going through menopause, it's important that they manage um their inflammation as much as possible through, again, what they're consuming, getting enough omega-3s in the diet is really important as well. And I will definitely say if you just, you know, small daily um choices and changes, they definitely will add up over time. And, you know, it can seem overwhelming um when there's different things that we need to focus on, but truthfully, this is a lifestyle that we all should be living. But we've just been influenced by society in terms of what we do. There's so many different things and responsibilities we have, and um other factors come into play as well, as far as why it can be a challenge to just make these things a part of your lifestyle. And you know, this is not condemning anyone, this is just the fact and the reality of um how we tend to live as a society, but um, just starting somewhere and making those small daily choices can um make a difference over time. But um, moving to the fifth area I want to share, um, and that is challenging your brain. Um, the brain loves to learn, um, and learning actually creates new neural pathways. So, you know, reading books and you know, maybe taking a class or a course, learning a new skill, memorizing a scripture, just trying something to just stretch your mind. Um, the brain was actually designed to grow throughout our life in terms of you know learning and challenging it in many ways. So often we probably just don't think about you know learning, but it it does make a difference in our brain health, um, especially as women go through menopause. Uh, the sixth area is stress management. Um, I can't uh stress this enough. Um, chronic stress actually affects every system in the body, and including including the brain. Um, when stress hormones are elevated for a long period of time, it will affect your memory and your concentration will suffer. So, no, when we um practice things like prayer and meditation and doing things like deep um breathing, spending time in nature, and just really surrounding ourselves with a supportive um environment where you have people that support you, all of these things can just help calm you, calm your nervous system, and just really create an environment where you can actually heal. But as I close today, I want I want you to just um remember this. So your brain is not separate from the rest of your body. Um the choices you make, the choices that you make every day, it it impacts your brain health and the food you eat, the quality of sleep that you're getting, movement, um, moving on a daily basis, managing your stress, your relationships, they all matter and affect your brain health and how your brain is functioning. So you may not be able to control every factor related to um aging and you know, as you're going through menopause, but you can influence many of the things that support a healthy brain. So I want to leave you with just one question. And question is what is one thing that you can start doing today, this week, really to better support your brain health, whether it's just um taking a daily walk, um, coming out with a sleep routine um so that you get a good night's sleep, or maybe just adding more protein to your diet. Um, whatever it is, it will make a difference. Small, consistent actions often create the biggest transformation. So I just want to thank you all today for joining me for this episode of menopause breakthrough. And if this episode encouraged you, please share it with another woman who can really benefit from this information. So until next time, take care and be well. Thank you for listening to menopause Breakthrough. If this episode resonated with you, don't forget to hit the follow button so you never miss a new conversation. Share it with a friend, colleague, or anyone who could benefit from support during this season of life. You can connect with me, access more resources, get tips, and coaching support, and learn about our menopause program for women by visiting www.happinessinucoach.com dash menopause dash elite dash program forward slash. Remember, you don't have to just survive menopause. You can thrive through it. And you are not alone in this season of life.