Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Carrie Lam,
Dr. Michael Lam: and this is Dr. Michael Lam.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Today we'll discuss some great ways to boost
cognitive health during menopause. Varying estrogen
levels in your body may affect your brain health. According to
experts, a considerable drop in estrogen levels can lead to
cognitive issues, so scientists are investigating if menopause
can be a risk factor for developing cognitive problems.
They're trying to find the link between hormone levels and
cognitive health. One study suggests that late menopause
delayed the decline of verbal memory. We're going to talk
about some natural methods that can help your body deal with
hormonal imbalance in menopause and help cognitive health. So
Dr. Lam, what are some natural methods to reduce cognitive
decline in menopause?
Dr. Michael Lam: Well, first of all, it's important for women to
understand that no two woman is the same in terms of your
constitution, makeup, weight, ie. your intrinsic build. Some
people go through menopause with great hormonal disruption, while
others tend to sail through pretty unscathed. In fact, if
you look back about one generation ago, when the
demographics is much skinnier, so to say, as compared to
nowadays, the incidence of hormonal disruption during
menopause is much reduced. We know that hormone disruption is
not necessary and is not a traumatic event because the body
has an automatic way to rebalance itself. It's only when
this rebalancing mechanism, which largely is controlled by
the adrenal system, is put in a stressful situation that the
body's estrogen-progesterone becomes really off.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So different women have different types of
bodies. That's why you can hear some people breeze through
menopause, while other women have a really hard time for
years.
Dr. Michael Lam: It's interesting to note that you can
have a very common complaint of hot flashes during menopause. It
can happen if you are skinny, which can indirectly reflect a
normal or low estrogen load to or you can be obese and that can
reflect estrogen dominance symptoms. So the vasomotor
instability as reflected in hot flashes can be from either side
of the spectrum. You have to know your body before you can
actually help the body to rebalancing and that's why many
times hormone replacements don't work well, sometimes they do,
but it's not universal, it has to be adjusted properly.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So even if you are estrogen deficient or
estrogen dominant, there are things that you can do, and
nutrition is one of them. So what you eat has a direct impact
on your hormones and your body. And so it's crucial that you eat
healthy. What does healthy mean? You get rid of processed foods,
unhealthy fats, refined carbs, and given that all of those can
increase your estrogen levels, leads to more symptoms of
menopause. There are many ingredients like chemical
additives, trans fat sugar, genetically modified ingredients
in processed foods that can trigger inflammation in your
body and therefore reducing the level of other beneficial
hormones. So a high caloric and high fat diet can initiate the
endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in
your brain, which can lead to more insulin resistance.
Dr. Michael Lam: Yeah, it's important to emphasize that good
fat is important because fat is the building block of estrogen
and progesterone and without that you're not going to feel
good.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So what kind of foods can menopausal women
consider eating?
Dr. Michael Lam: Start with vegetables with strong
antioxidative properties and with minerals. Fat should be
moderated but include good fat, like those in fish, especially
deep sea fish and not the coastal ones regularly.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Right, so you're talking about vegetables
because they're high in fiber, and protein. Also make to have
fermented foods, probiotics and prebiotics that help promote gut
health because your hormones need to get broken down by your
liver. Make sure you have a healthy liver. Spices or herbs
and foods rich in vitamin D, Omega three fatty acids which is
in fish, having some magnesium and chromium to increase your
body's responsiveness to insulin at the cellular level is also
very important.
Dr. Michael Lam: The adrenal glands play an important part in
this because the adrenal system, along with the neuro, endo,
metabolic stress response, controls over 50 different
hormones, including progesterone, testosterone and
estrogen. These are all components that need to be self
balanced in order for you to feel good.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So that's the nutrition to help your brain
during this menopausal period. But exercise is also very
important. Can you tell us a little about how exercise can
help slow down cognitive impairment?
Dr. Michael Lam: Regular exercise improves your
hypothalamic insulin sensitivity and brain health. Furthermore,
it encourages the growth of brain nerve cells and strengthen
the links. Now the problem with a lot of people is the tendency
to over exercise or exercise beyond the body's capability or
the reserve level. We see that a lot, in adrenal fatigue and
results in adrenal crash. So proper exercise is not
necessarily just aerobics. It is combining aerobics with
restorative exercise like core strength and core training, like
yoga, pilates, something slower. Strengthening the core is what
sustains a body, not just the epinephrine during exercises
that can crash the system.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So you want to enhance the blood flow not
only into your brain, but to your adrenal glands, so that
they can produce effective secretion of the adrenal
hormones.
Dr. Michael Lam: So matching the body's exercise, each step along
the way during general recovery is very important. Even the
right exercise, done at the wrong time, it can lead to
relapses and crashes.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Right and yoga has neuroprotective
properties that can protect your brain's gray matter from
degeneration. They actually showed some brain scans of
people practicing yoga and it shows a positive effect on your
brain.
Dr. Michael Lam: Yoga, if not done properly like the
backbends, can be a sympathetic stimulatory trigger. So the
bottom line is that if you are healthy, fine. But things like
hot yoga is problematic for people with advanced adrenal
fatigue where you have regulation of temperature
issues, and it can be crashing.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So we talked about the food and the exercise
and managing stress is also very important because that is
connected to the neuroendometabolic stress
response that you have. When you disrupt the neuroendometabolic
stress response, that will also disrupt the hormonal circuit.
High cortisol levels from stress can alter the pattern of your
brain connectome. It affects the ability to process your
cognitive function. So, whatever way you can try to manage your
stress, is very important. You can do adrenal breathing
exercises to help relieve the stress and the anxiousness and
relax your mind, or mindfulness techniques are all very good.
Another way to also help with the menopausal is maintaining a
healthy gut flora.
Dr. Michael Lam: The gut is considered a second brain,
because the precursors of the neurotransmitters, like
serotonin, the feel good hormone, are made in the gut.
The gut brain axis is critical to be maintained if you're going
to have normal function.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: What are some gut healthy foods that you
can eat, are fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, like
we talked about legumes, prebiotic probiotic rich
fermented foods. Your gut will love that, and it will support
your brain function.
Dr. Michael Lam: If you do have a systemic Candida, you have to
be careful with any fermented food, although t's fine with
some people so it's not universal. Just be on the safe
side and be careful.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: So we talked about those four things. And the
fifth one would be to get restorative sleep. How does
sleep affect our brain and circadian rhythms?
Dr. Michael Lam: The most frequent complaint in adrenal
fatigue when the body's under stress is the inability to fall
asleep. Also, you can fall asleep but wake up in the middle
of the night. Both are problematic and they reflect the
front part of the neural end of metabolic stress response system
that is imbalanced. So for example, many people fall asleep
when tired, but tend to wake up soon afterward. That can be
cortisol driven. It could be a neurotransmitter imbalance, or a
metabolic imbalance reflecting unstable blood sugar. So that
there are many factors. You cannot just take some sleep aids
and enforce sleep but it's about understanding the underlying
cause, and try to rebalance and heal at the root level.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Extensive studies show that sleep
deprivation leads to hormone and blood sugar imbalances and that
will lead to inadequate sleep, poor memory, anxiety, lower
mood, like difficulty concentrating, weight gain, and
decreased immunity. So getting a restorative sleep is important
to memory and cognitive function. Finally, you need to
improve your brain function by keeping it engaged. It can help
with improvement of your memory and prevent brain degeneration.
Studies have shown that appropriate stimulation can help
counteract brain degeneration. What do you guys like to do to
to stimulate your brain? Do you like to do puzzles, sudoku,
which really stimulates the brain. One of the simplest ways
to boost your brain function is to learn new things. I know Dr.
Lam always loves to learn new things and teach about it and
I'm sure you will hear more about it. But keeping your brain
active will help with neuroplasticity in your brain.
So whether it's visiting new places, playing musical
instruments, comment down below and see what you like to tell us
what you like to do. Whether it's a new thing or something
that you are currently doing to boost your brain.
Dr. Michael Lam: In adrenal fatigue, one of the frequent
complaint that we see is presence of brain fog. A know
something is almost as if it's so easy to recollect, but yet it
is not within reach. This is oftentimes a sign of early
cognitive impairment, caused by inflammation or temperature
dysregulation, or carbon dioxide imbalances. In the brain, all of
these can be modulated to a certain degree with healthy
adrenals and a healthy brain function.
Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: We hope you learn something about brain
function and menopause. And don't forget to subscribe and
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on our videos. If you're experiencing brain fog or
cognitive difficulties, let us know how we can help you in the
comments below. We hope to empower you on this journey.