It's well understood that women are more prone to develop Alzheimer's disease than men. But, of course, women live longer than men. So it stands to reason that by simply living longer, women will be more susceptible to any disease of old age. But the numbers don't add up. Women develop Alzheimer's in numbers too much greater than men to be simply accounted for by a longer life. Women are also more likely to develop MS than men, but men are more likely to develop Parkinson's, brain tumors, and epilepsy. Why is that?
I recently came across this interesting article that addresses possible explanations. For Alzheimer's, two dynamics appear to be the differences in male and female chromosomes (XX for women and XY for men) and hormonal changes during menopause.
The X and Y chromosomes contain genes for sex differences. However, while women have two X chromosomes, one of then is mostly silenced. Mostly. Those genes not silenced (on the chromosome that men lack) appear to be related to the immune system, brain function, and Alzheimer's disease.
The article discusses the consequences of hormonal changes during menopause, but sheds little light on how they might influence the development of Alzheimer's disease. However, we did write about this back in 2018, with a link to a possibly more insightful article. Or maybe not. Mostly, they acknowledge that there must be a role for sex hormones in the development of Alzheimer's, but it's really not clear how that works.
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