Summary: New research shows that women with healthy
blood iron levels during menopause perform better on cognitive tasks
like memory and attention. The study found that sufficient blood iron
was linked to better brain function without increasing harmful iron
deposits in the brain.
Low iron levels were associated with slower
cognitive performance, suggesting a potential cause of brain fog during
menopause. Researchers highlight that minor dietary changes to boost
iron could ease cognitive symptoms during this transition phase.
Key Facts:
- Cognitive Boost: Adequate blood iron improves memory, attention, and cognitive speed during menopause.
- No Brain Iron Risk: Higher blood iron did not correlate with dangerous brain iron accumulation.
- Simple Solutions: Small dietary changes could ease brain fog and other cognitive symptoms in menopausal women.
Source: University of Oklahoma
New
research from the University of Oklahoma sheds light on an understudied
area of science: iron levels in the blood and their relationship to
cognitive performance in women transitioning into menopause.
The findings are good news for women experiencing brain fog and other symptoms.
Published in the journal Nutrients,
the study suggests that when women have adequate levels of iron in
their blood during the menopausal transition, they perform better on
cognitive tasks.
Moreover, sufficient iron in the blood did not
equate to unsafe levels of iron in the brain, which has been shown to
elevate the risk for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“When
a woman makes the menopausal transition, she’s no longer losing blood
on a monthly basis, which means she’s no longer losing iron,” said
Michael Wenger, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the OU College of
Arts and Sciences and a lead author of the study.
“We wanted to
see if the cost of being low on iron disappears during the menopausal
transition. Very few studies have been done in this area.”
The
research team measured iron levels in the blood, conducted MRIs to see
the amount of iron in the brain, and assessed behavioral measures of
cognition. None of the women in the study were deficient in iron;
however, quite a few were below where they should be for their age.
The women who were below expected levels of iron in the blood performed worse on measures of memory, attention and cognition.
“Our
previous research has shown that being iron-deficient extracts some
serious costs in terms of cognitive performance,” Wenger said.
“If I were to give a woman with iron deficiency a simple task in
which she presses a button every time an asterisk appears on a screen,
the deficiency would cost her about 150 milliseconds.
“That
doesn’t sound like a lot, but we make simple decisions like that when we
choose every word we say in a sentence. Those 150 milliseconds add up.”
Importantly, the amount of iron in the blood did not predict how much iron was deposited in a woman’s brain, Wenger said.
“We
have known for some time that the accumulation of iron in the brain is a
risk factor for developing conditions like Alzheimer’s and vascular
dementia,” he said.
“This data was surprising, and good news
because it appears that having iron levels that are at or above what you
should expect for your age does not mean you’re accumulating more iron
in your brain.”
Being deficient in iron is not the same thing as
being anemic. Low iron is a risk factor for anemia, Wenger said, but
people can become anemic for other reasons. However, women visiting
their OB-GYN typically are not tested for iron deficiency, which may be a
missed opportunity.
“Low iron could easily be one of the reasons that a woman is experiencing brain fog during the menopausal transition,” he said.
“It
also may be why some women talk about their eyesight changing during
menopause. Iron is a critical element in the synthesis of the
neurotransmitter dopamine, and the eye is dependent upon dopamine for
basic signaling at the first point of contact with light.”
Although
taking iron supplements is usually not the best course of action since
they cause major gastrointestinal side effects, a low dose could be
effective, as would diet changes to consume more foods high in iron,
Wenger said.
“Making these minor changes could make a woman’s transition from pre- to post-menopause easier to bear,” he said.
Because
part of the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic,
enrollment wasn’t as high as the research team would have liked. They
plan to seek funding to conduct a larger study.
“I feel like we’ve had a pretty good understanding of post-menopause
health, such as watching for cardiovascular issues and osteoporosis, but
we haven’t known as much about what to do during this in-between phase,
and it’s actually way more bothersome to people,” said OB-GYN and study
co-author Pamela Miles, M.D., an associate professor in the OU College
of Medicine.
About this iron deficiency and brain fog research news
Author: April Wilkerson
Source: University of Oklahoma
Contact: April Wilkerson – University of Oklahoma
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Cognitive Performance in Relation to Systemic and Brain Iron at Menopause” by Michael Wenger et al. Nutrients
