The XX Brain

Sharing my learnings from the book, The XX Brain by Lisa Mosconi, PhD

The XX Brain by Lisa Mosconi, PhD

The first book to address cognitive enhancement and Alzheimer’s prevention specifically in women — and to frame brain health as an essential component of Women’s Health. The XX Brain is a rally cry for women to have full access to information regarding what is going on in their brains and bodies, and a roadmap for the path to optimal, lifelong brain health.

• Women are suffering from an Alzheimer’s epidemic, and it’s getting worse. Unfortunately, so far, the problem’s received little media attention and only limited focus from the medical establishment. 
• Historically, medicine has been dominated by men. The problem is that the makeup of women and men’s bodies is different. Women metabolize medicine differently to men as well.
• The medical establishment has long treated women’s health with what’s known as “bikini medicine”: seeing women as different in terms of their reproductive organs, but otherwise physiologically identical to men. But that overlooks one vital area of difference: the brain. Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression or anxiety. They experience four times as many migraines and are three times more at risk of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. Most worrying of all, two out of three Alzheimer’s patients are women.
• Addressing women’s health goes far beyond the “bikini.” More than a medical issue, it is an equality issue. Women deserve to have their health treated as an urgent priority.
• Hormonal transitions like menopause radically affect brain health. Menopause happens when a woman has her last menstrual period and is no longer fertile – usually around her forties or fifties. With the right preventive strategies, the effects of menopause can be managed so your brain stays healthy through menopause and beyond. 
• One of the most common misconceptions about Alzheimer’s is that women get the disease because they have a special Alzheimer’s gene. But a genetic susceptibility isn’t the same as a foregone conclusion. Studies show that at least one-third of all Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented by improved health and lifestyle choices. 
• To determine your risk of Alzheimer’s, take stock of your overall health.
• Alzheimer’s medications have the highest rate of failure in clinical trials – at a staggering 99.6 percent! But there is one treatment that has shown promise: hormone replacement therapy, also known as menopause hormone treatments or MHT.
• Eating a balanced, nutritious diet is the way to optimize your brain health. 
• Doing regular exercise of low to moderate intensity offers enormous benefits for all aspects of your health – especially the wellbeing of your brain.
• We need to get stress levels under control. But how? One way is to allow our brains to have a break from constant mental stimulation. If your mind is racing all the time, a great skill to practice is meditation or mindfulness. Of course, the very best way to give your mind some rest is through sleep.
• in order to keep your brain healthy you need to use it. A well-stimulated brain has stronger connections between brain cells, meaning that it is more versatile and resilient and can respond faster to stimuli.