It is incredible, but scientific discoveries bring more and more troubles for women. Especially for mothers with many children. Both psychologists and neuroscientists have proved that a woman becomes stupid on maternity leave. Then, however, the cognitive function of the brain is restored, but unless the woman settles down at home and focuses on diapers and dirty dishes. And the recent discovery of scientists will upset everyone who dreams of a big – really big – family.
Scientists set out to understand what causes Alzheimer’s disease. Simply put, senile dementia. It is already known that women are more susceptible to this disease than men. And mothers with many children – even more.
The study involved 3549 women, whose average age was 70 years. All of them passed tests for the state of memory and logical thinking. They all provided scientists with information on how many times they became pregnant and gave birth. These numbers, you know, can be different: someone had miscarriages, someone had to go to terminate the pregnancy. It turned out that those women who had five or more children developed Alzheimer’s disease 70 percent more often than those who were less fertile.
Scientists believe that such a feature may be associated with the production of the hormone estrogen.
“Perhaps moderate estrogen production during the first trimester of pregnancy protects the female brain from Alzheimer’s. By the eighth week, the amount of estrogen doubles, and by the end of pregnancy, it rises to peaks 40 times higher than usual, ”explained Ki Won Kim, professor at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Seoul National University.
Scientists now hope to continue research. Who knows, suddenly, with the help of hormone therapy based on estrogen, it will eventually be possible to protect women from the risk of developing Alzheimer’s – no matter how many children they have.