Why women without ovaries are more likely to develop Alzheimer's and other dementia; Parkinson's; and lung cancer - a hypothesis.
Also, why calcium supplements are not the answer to our increased risk of death by fracture.
Also, why calcium supplements are not the answer to our increased risk of death by fracture.
 | Of all of the ovary removal (BSO) risks, when I tell people that Parkinson's/dementia/Alzheimer's and lung cancer are among them, those are the illnesses people are most curious about, so I did some digging. I haven't seen this put together anywhere, but I'm pretty comfortable with it as a hypothesis. The neural issues that accompany Alzheimer's/other dementia and Parkinson's come from the combination of the loss of neuroplasticity and regeneration that the ovaries' activin contributed. The increased cholesterol that occurs when the gonads (ovaries) are no longer there as a site to convert cholesterol into steroid hormones is another issue. |
Researchers increasingly tie high LDL (low density lipid, a.k.a., bad) cholesterol to the Lewy bodies/plaque that they see in these patients. They see the high cholesterol affect patients who've had some kind of heart or TBI (traumatic brain injury) issue, but I'd guess that not being able to regenerate normally because activin is absent could have the same result.
Without a response from the ovaries to the luteinizing hormone (LH) sent to them by the pituitary gland, the luteinizing hormone levels just keep going up, unchecked. Higher levels of luteinizing hormone are also tied to Alzheimer's in women, so the risk profile of women without ovaries becomes more complex but the fact that she has increased risk becomes clearer.
(LH/Alzheimer's study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2111407/ - though the study author is incorrect, of course, when she says that postmenopausal women have lost their ability to produce estrogen. This is not true of either BSO women or naturally postmenopausal women, but is more true of BSO women. At a minimum, the adrenal glands contribute androgens that convert to estrogen. In women who keep their ovaries, their testosterone rises after menopause and some of it converts to estrogen, leading to higher levels in postmenopausal women than BSO women.)
Without a response from the ovaries to the luteinizing hormone (LH) sent to them by the pituitary gland, the luteinizing hormone levels just keep going up, unchecked. Higher levels of luteinizing hormone are also tied to Alzheimer's in women, so the risk profile of women without ovaries becomes more complex but the fact that she has increased risk becomes clearer.
(LH/Alzheimer's study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2111407/ - though the study author is incorrect, of course, when she says that postmenopausal women have lost their ability to produce estrogen. This is not true of either BSO women or naturally postmenopausal women, but is more true of BSO women. At a minimum, the adrenal glands contribute androgens that convert to estrogen. In women who keep their ovaries, their testosterone rises after menopause and some of it converts to estrogen, leading to higher levels in postmenopausal women than BSO women.)
My thinking is that it is the missing activin, a cytokine protein produced by the gonads (ovaries), at play when there are issues with the lungs (also the arteries, due to activin's role in elasticity and smooth muscle).
Lung alveoli rely on activin. This may be why I read about (and have personally experienced) asthma as one of the first health issues in BSO women, and may also be the reason that regeneration issues and lack of activin (cytokine) activity to reduce inflammation lead to lung cancer and other lung issues, even in women who haven't smoked.
We know that using hormones, as many women without ovaries do, increases this risk even further, to 2.4x.
Lung alveoli rely on activin. This may be why I read about (and have personally experienced) asthma as one of the first health issues in BSO women, and may also be the reason that regeneration issues and lack of activin (cytokine) activity to reduce inflammation lead to lung cancer and other lung issues, even in women who haven't smoked.
We know that using hormones, as many women without ovaries do, increases this risk even further, to 2.4x.
The significantly lower testosterone they find in women without ovaries, in, for example, the Fogle and Rancho Bernardo studies, is one aspect of heart and other muscular weakness, but activin is likely a separate contributory factor.
Finally, this week's article in the New England Journal of Medicine about the fact that calcium supplements weren't show to reduce fracture is not surprising. Fracture is not so much about bone mineral strength but about bone's flexibility that comes from the net made by collagen. The lack of flexibility that comes with the decline in collagen in bone is likely the underlying issue with fracture in women without ovaries, not the lack of calcium in her diet. Our bones are more brittle for the same reason that our skin is dry and lifeless. It's also the reason so many of us experience painful osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia - lack of collagen in joints.
Activin is too often overlooked, and contributes to a host of health issues of its own. I keep coming back to it as our biggest blind spot with women who've had a BSO.
Alzheimer's costs the U.S. $2 billion a year right now, and that number is projected to increase 5x by 2050. Maybe we could check some of that if we stopped removing healthy ovaries 1,900 times a day in this country.
For more information, visit www.overy.org or email at [email protected].
Finally, this week's article in the New England Journal of Medicine about the fact that calcium supplements weren't show to reduce fracture is not surprising. Fracture is not so much about bone mineral strength but about bone's flexibility that comes from the net made by collagen. The lack of flexibility that comes with the decline in collagen in bone is likely the underlying issue with fracture in women without ovaries, not the lack of calcium in her diet. Our bones are more brittle for the same reason that our skin is dry and lifeless. It's also the reason so many of us experience painful osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia - lack of collagen in joints.
Activin is too often overlooked, and contributes to a host of health issues of its own. I keep coming back to it as our biggest blind spot with women who've had a BSO.
Alzheimer's costs the U.S. $2 billion a year right now, and that number is projected to increase 5x by 2050. Maybe we could check some of that if we stopped removing healthy ovaries 1,900 times a day in this country.
For more information, visit www.overy.org or email at [email protected].
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