Chaos to Calm

Are your mid-conversation memory blanks perimenopause or early dementia?

Sarah McLachlan Episode 68

Is your forgetfulness an early flag for dementia or just menopause?

You’re mid-conversation, and suddenly, you can’t remember the name of something basic. A grater? Your colleague’s name? Completely blank. If you've been wondering if this is normal or something more sinister, you're certainly not alone - but the answer might surprise you.

Tune in to this episode where we get to the real reasons behind these frustrating memory lapses, why you’re not losing your mind, and how you can regain your usual mental clarity.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why memory lapses happen: Discover how hormonal changes during perimenopause are impacting your brain and why it's normal to feel like you’re forgetting things you used to know with ease.
  • How neuroinflammation is holding you back: Learn about the hidden culprit behind brain fog and forgetfulness, and why your brain’s ability to process information is being slowed down.
  • Gut health matters more than you think: Find out how the state of your gut is affecting your brain health and contributing to memory issues.
  • Practical ways to sharpen your memory: I’ll share simple, actionable steps to support your brain through perimenopause—so you can start to feel like yourself again.

Sneak Peek:
"We move into our forties, and suddenly it's like, why am I so forgetful? Why am I not on top of all these things? You're in the middle of a conversation, or you're asking your kids to pass you something in the kitchen, something basic like a grater - and blank. You can't even remember what the name of it is, or you see someone that you've known forever and can't remember their name."

Curious to know what’s really going on in your brain - and how to take control of your memory again? Listen to the full episode to learn more about what’s happening and how to move forward with practical solutions.

Listen to the full episode now to understand how to beat brain fog and forgetfulness, and feel more focused every day.

Links & resources mentioned in the episode:

Send us a question for the FAQs segment or your feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

  • OPEN NOW: Discover how to use food as your most powerful medicine, smoothing hormonal fluctuations and easing perimenopause symptoms naturally. (Yes, you have more options than hormone therapy!) Say goodbye to feeling out of control and hello to feeling more like your old self every day, with PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!)
  • The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
  • Been told your blood test results are "normal" or "fine" while you feel far from your best? Discover the power of optimal blood test analysis with The Blood Test Decoder: Optimal Ranges for Women Over 40.
  • For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

Hello, welcome to the chaos to come podcast episode number 68. I'm Sarah, the perimenopause naturopath, your guide through this wonderful journey of perimenopause to menopause. If you're over 40, feeling like you're changing hormones or hijacking your mood, energy, and weight, and you want to change that in a holistic way.

Then this is the place for you, my friend, because each episode I share with you my views on what is happening in your body, why you're feeling the way you are and how you can change that with actionable advice to help you move from chaos to calm and feel more comfortable in your body. Thank you so much for joining me.

Let's get right into today's topic.

So today's topic, lots of women I know we're on the ball juggling all of these things through our thirties, kids, work. Running a house, which is no small task. And then we move into our forties and suddenly it's like, why am I so forgetful? Why am I not on top of all these things? You're in the middle of a conversation or you're asking your kids to pass you something in the kitchen, something basic like grater and blank. 

You can't even remember what the name of it is, or you see someone that, their name, you've known them forever. Can't remember their name. It's totally blank. So you're like a deer in the headlights, rummaging through the filing cabinets of your mind, trying to find their name.

This happens to a lot to a lot of women and you're not alone, definitely not alone. And I know it can bring up a lot of fear and anxiety. I know for me when it was happening, I started to feel really anxious because there is dementia in both sides of my family. No, starting to really freak out thinking that it was early onset dementia.

I don't know for other women, it can be really, disruptive to their career because maybe they're in a high demand or a high level career there's that unwritten or unsaid expectation or that we have to keep up with the men around us and mental sharpness and acuity is really key.

And when you lose this, it can be terrifying and quite life changing. I know some women might have to quit, feel like they have to quit their job for this. So it can be frustrating, embarrassing, trigger anxiety, like I said, and worry there as well. So often lots of women, maybe like me, worrying about early onset dementia our brains tend to spiral to the worst case scenario, don't they?

More often than not, it's actually just your brain's response to those hormone shifts that are happening in perimenopause and menopause. And the good news is like in pregnancy, you've felt similar to this in pregnancy. It comes back. Okay. So I just want to put that in there for you today. It comes back, but let's talk about why this happens and what you can do about it because that's what I found for myself.

There was a lot that I could do and things that I worked out could be really helpful to reduce that forgetfulness or I don't even know. I want a better way to describe it than forgetfulness. It's just like mental blanks. I remember Blankety Blanks, the TV show. It's like that. Except we're not just missing a letter or so, we're missing whole words.

That was what Blankety Blanks was about, wasn't it? Hopefully you get that reference because yeah, I am 50 now. Maybe a little bit older than some of you, but I know lots of you remember that show as well. So let's talk about the perimenopausal brain. Why do these problems, memory problems happen? So memory and your focus, your concentration are really tightly linked to your hormone balance.

And I think everything, everything in our body is tied to our hormone balance. We know that I've talked about it before there's estrogen receptors on all of our cells. So it's probably not surprising that so many parts, so many tissues, organs, systems of our body are impacted when those change.

So brain is no different here at all. And as your oestrogen levels begin to fluctuate and decline, it does have a significant impact on the brain. I've talked about it before in terms of the energy production, but also oestrogen is really critical for your brain health as well, so it helps with neuroplasticity.

So this is your brain's ability to form new connections. So there was a time when they thought that we're kind of born with all the connections we were going to have and that's it. But research tells us now that actually we can form new connections so we can learn new things. We can create new connections in our brain at any stage of life.

You use it or lose it. It really is about it. You'll lose those connections that are there and you'll miss out on forming new connections. So estrogen helps with neuroplasticity. It also helps with transition, transmission between the synapses of your neurons. So, each neuron has connects to the other or has a little gap between it and the information goes from one to the other.

So estrogen helps with that too. And your cognitive function and the metabolic flexibility in your brain there as well. So when estrogen starts to drop, your brain's ability to communicate effectively is compromised and key areas of the brain that are involved in memory, like the hippocampus and your brain prefrontal cortex, they rely on estrogen too, to function properly.

So it's a bit harder for your brain as estrogen declines and they'll get disruptions, which is what you're experiencing when you're like, can't find the word or the name of the thing that you're looking for, or you might even forget what you were talking about or get halfway through a sentence and then, the word is gone or what you know, the name for it is gone. So I, like I just alluded to before in perimenopause, there is a decline in your gray matter volume. So the size of your brain and the glucose metabolism as well. So it how it makes its energy or gets energy for those neurons to work and do the things that we want them to do.

So this is similar to pregnancy in that the gray matter volume changes. And similar to pregnancy after menopause, it does come back. So that's great news, isn't it? So, like I mentioned, estrogen also helps get glucose into the cells and neurons in your brain. So it helps your brain cells use energy efficiently.

So, remembering that as estrogen declines we become more insulin resistant It's harder to get the glucose into those cells and they don't eat as easily use fat as a fuel They're not as metabolically flexible. So in the brain fog episode number 51, I talked about that, there and the insulin episode as well.

I've talked about it too. So when estrogen declines, the brain has to adapt to this energy crisis. Like there's plenty of energy in your bloodstream. It's just not getting into those neurons. So that can lead to that mental fatigue and slower processing and exacerbate your memory. Boxes those blanks. And we know that it's more related to hormones and anything else, because when researchers match men and women, like age match them, these changes were specific to, menopause and that endocrine aging as they call it.

So a hormone aging or hormone changing men are a bit more flatlined in their hormones across their life from puberty onwards. So yeah, we know it's definitely not an age thing, but a hormone. So yeah, it does that research emphasizes the significance to our neurology and our brain health of menopause and perimenopause for women.

So I wanted to talk about inflammation in the brain, which I haven't actually touched on here as well, but this is really interesting. So inflammation is an immune response and we don't necessarily not want it because it is really helpful to repair tissue damage. Like if you sprain an ankle or if you get a cut, you want some inflammation there because it's going to bring immune cells to the area and help heal it.

What becomes a problem is when we have chronic long term inflammation and particularly for our brain, that is damaging. So, estrogen is very anti inflammatory. This is why you're often getting joint pain or frozen shoulder and bursitis and things like that can come up in perimenopause and menopause get more inflammation and pain. 

And I will of course, do podcast episodes on those in the future. I have them planned for early in 2025. However, let's talk about the brain. So, there is estrogen receptors on cells, as I've said, and there's some in particular that estrogen receptor beta plays a really critical role in regulating inflammation in the brain.

So as estrogen levels decline, there's a reduction in the stimulation of that receptor. And so it actually triggers and activates the, in a immune system and inflammation in the brain. So chronic, they call it neuro inflammation. It's inflammation in the brain, and it is. Happening when there's over activation of immune cells in the brain.

And we have these little cells, microglia, they are resident immune cells in our brain. Their job is to defend the brain against infections and injury. And we have astrocytes and in the brain as well. And they release inflammatory cells, mediators, cytokines and reactive oxygen species. And so their jobs, those cytokines and reactive oxygen species is, to go and kill microbes that might be there or viruses that shouldn't be there.

That's their specific job. So those astrocytes are immune cells that go out, they're like your soldiers. They're going to shoot down any invading pathogens. And the microglia are telling them, when, and where to be active. So in that chronic inflammation state, they become overactive. And then those we've got too many of those inflammatory soldiers in the neighborhood and they start just they got nothing to do, so they turn on your neurons and yourself.

We don't want that. We don't want to lose our neurons and have to make new connections and start all over again there. I mean, it's great that we can, because there was a time we thought when you lost him, that's it. But yeah, so it's good that we've got neuroplasticity, but also that's an energy drain for our bodies as well.

So. The decline in estrogen, decline in anti inflammatory increases inflammation can also, impact your memory and your concentration and give you more of that foggy feeling there as well. I mentioned that the decline in estrogen affects your energy, your mood, in or getting it into your cells. It also affects your mitochondria.

They're the energy factories of your cells. And you can have, a few hundred to hundreds of thousands within a tiny cell. It's amazing. There's these energy factories though, they become reduced, their production, their output becomes reduced when there's more inflammation in the brain. And also when there's that tendency towards insulin resistance. So both of those things come up as estrogen declines. 

So more inflammation, we've got a dysregulated immune system because the lowering progesterone of perimenopause and menopause triggers remodeling of our immune system and it can become quite either reactive or hyperreactive.

So yeah, this is why we got so much going on. There's a lot happening just like in puberty, but in reverse as well. So, you might find yourself in meetings struggling to keep up or talking with people and forgetting words mid sentence or blanking on the details that you used to know inside out.

Please be kind to yourself. This is, it's not about being kind. your intelligence or anything like that is physiology and biochemistry at play in the background there. Right. It's just there's a lot going on. There's more inflammation. It's harder to get the glucose into the cells.

It's there's less production, less turn, less energy being produced within the cells. And so your brain is having a harder time processing and recalling information. It's got less resources to be able to do it. And it's sort of distracted thinking that there's an invading pathogen it needs to deal with.

So when you know that it, it makes sense, it's easier to be like, Oh, okay, well I need to support my body. Right. So I just wanted to touch on before I move on to how do we, what do we do about it and talk about the connection between our gut health and our brain health. Because I've talked about the importance of gut health before, but the gut, there's a connection between our gut and our brain and we know that lots of our brain and nervous system compounds and neurotransmitters and mood molecules like serotonin and dopamine are made in our gut. But we also know now that inflammation in our gut can trigger inflammation in the brain. And we do have what we call a blood brain barrier.

So it protects, it protects the brain from harmful substances like it's like a gate. It keeps it closed it opens and selectively let stuff through, but when there's chronic inflammation or if there's inflammation in our gut, so chronic inflammation in the brain, neuroinflammation, or if there's inflammation in our gut or the gut there's a barrier between our gut and our bloodstream as well.

If that's dysfunctional and it's leaky, you might've heard a leaky gut, intestinal permeability. If it's more permeable and letting things through, that also weakens our blood brain barrier as well. And so, inflammation in our gut triggers our immune system. There's more immune cells and inflammation, inflammatory mediators moving around in your bloodstream.

They can also infiltrate your brain, contributing to neuro inflammation and neuronal damage there as well. So we want a healthy gut Hippocrates said that the gut was the seed of all health. It's no lie. And I guess research and science is just catching up on that these days, what we've known for a long time.

So let's talk about how to keep our memory sharp. How are we going to support our brain to adapt to the situation? Okay. Because that's the thing I'm talking about it all the time. What I want you to know is that the key to getting rid of these symptoms, like it doesn't really matter which symptom it is.

The key is helping your body adapt and adjust the body, your brain, adapt and adjust to the hormone changes. And that's how the symptoms will go away because you're going to help support your body to adapt to that change in the glucose getting into the cells or we're going to try and optimize it so we're less insulin resistant and it's easier for that glucose to get into the cells.

We're going to reduce the inflammation so that it's easier for our brain to do what it wants to do. So you know, you don't just have to sit back and accept it and write it out for however long it might be. Because remember perimenopause can go for like 12 years. You don't want to be blanking and having a hard time remembering stuff for that long.

I mean, that's really disruptive to your life. And as opposed to the people around you, it's a little frustrating as well, but they can of course have empathy and understanding if you can tell them that this is what's going on for you. I think that's helpful for them to try and be a little bit more patient and empathize.

So let's talk about it. How do we reduce inflammation? Well, we want to eat an anti inflammatory rich food. We also don't want to trigger inflammation in our gut by eating lots of refined sugars and processed foods, drinking alcohol, that sort of thing. We want to eat foods that are rich in those omega 3 fatty acids, like those fatty fish, like salmon and, mackerel and sardines and things like that.

Flaxseeds I have a love affair with flaxseeds. I've done a whole episode on phytoestrogens and how much I love them. But we love flax seeds for their omega 3 content as well. Anti inflammatory foods like leafy greens, berries, nuts, seeds, a really colorful, diverse, whole foods diet.

That's the anti inflammatory style. Sleep's really vital for memory. I mean, I was talking with a younger client the other day and explaining to her that our REM sleep is how our brain sorts through everything that's come in during the day and files things away into our memory, tidies up our memory, tidies up our filing cabinets.

That's how I think of the the parts in our brain is like lots of filing cabinets. Do you remember those big, not credenzas? What were they called? Those big giant filing cabinets they used to have that you'd have to slide them down and go and look in there, get things out. I used to love them.

I guess I don't have them these days cause everything's digital. But we've got the the, our own digital version in our brain of those filing cabinets and everything that comes in has to get sorted, either put in the bin or do we keep it and we file it away there as well. And that's what sleep does for you.

So sleep helps consolidate memories. It helps your brain focus on reducing the inflammation and clearing toxins that might be, have snuck in there. And I know that sleep can be harder to get, but this is why you need to prioritize it even more. Stop scrolling on your phone in the evening. Get those great sleep hygiene habits in and make sure you're going to bed and getting to bed and lights off 10:30, 11:00.

Earlier better, depending on what time you have to get up. If you get up early, like at five or six or you're waking early, give yourself a fighting chance to get that seven to eight hours sleep and go to bed earlier. The sleep deprivation only worsens memory issues, mental fog, but also your weight, your cravings, all sorts of stuff.

Everything's impacted by sleep. Remember that regular movement. Boost blood flow to your brain. So particularly if you're having a hard time and you're sitting at your desk and you're working, get up and move around, maybe go outside and do some deep breathing, get some more oxygen to your brain. It doesn't have to be a heavy, intense workout.

I'm just talking about getting up and moving your body, doing some stretches, maybe do some yoga or Pilates. Lift some weights at the gym, go for a walk. Any of those things are beautiful. Of course, stress plays into it like every episode, always talking about it. But yeah, when our cortisol is higher, it can make brain fog worse and those memory lapses worse as well.

So you do our stress resilience has decreases in perimenopause and menopause because of the change in progesterone. So we do want to try and build our stress resilience and manage our stress there as well. I know it's difficult to get rid of stressors for sure. But trying to build our resilience by going to going to bed, getting enough sleep, drinking water, keeping hydrated.

That's really important for your brain health, eating regularly, keeping your blood glucose levels balanced. All these basics are really not to be underrated. I think that we do, we're looking for those fancy solutions and really it's actually that simple and that basic there's just no way around that we have to look after ourselves and our human bodies in the same way that we regularly service our car and we look after our car and make sure it's got fuel and water and all those things, we look after our kids.

We need to look after ourselves in the same way. I know that on days that I'm rested, like I've had a good amount of sleep, I've eaten in the way that I am PerimenoGO way, that suits my body. And I've moving my body as well, or if I'm feeling a bit flat at my desk, I get up and move my body.

And I know definitely the mental fog lifts on those days. And I feel a bit sharper and less likely to forget things. So that those basics don't underrate them. They really are. I'm sorry, I don't have a magic pill for you. There's no quick fix. It's just about your daily habits, nourishing your body, putting good food in most of the time, eating your three meals a day, drinking your water, having your sleep.

Totally unsexy. I know. But yeah. It's that simple. Now, like I said before, you might worry that these memory issues could be something more serious, like early onset dementia. It can feel really alarming if you're suddenly starting to forget words and names of things that you should know. For the vast majority of women, these memory lapses are temporary.

They may last for a period of time, like they could even last for a couple of years. But usually once you transition through the menopause, over the one or two years after directly after that, your brain starts to adapt to the new hormonal environment. And studies have even shown that gray matter volume, while they decrease, they recover after menopause.

And also your brain has an incredible ability to reorganize and compensate for, loss. Like if we think about people that have actually had surgery or had parts of their brain removed over time, when they follow those people and keep checking and testing on their brain, they see that they can reorganize and compensate for that.

So just give yourself the gift of time and patience as well as supporting yourself with these basics. And it should readjust and adapt to it, compensate for it. If you are concerned though, go have a conversation with your doctor. If they dismiss you and you're still worried, get a second opinion. Always.

If you think that you have some, red flags around early onset dementia, if you think it's more than just hormone changes, it's always worth a conversation because when you know you have a diagnosis or you can make a plan and you can deal with things and even try and do some early intervention or maybe even preventative care to try and stop that from happening. So reducing inflammation, helping your body adjust to those lower estrogen levels, you'll get better results, which may find that your memory issues just naturally improve, like I said, over time, but you have to be patient.

It might take a while, like one to two years of that there as well. And some women will use hormonal therapy to help overcome that at that time as well. If there's ever a time that you're coming off it or weaning off it, you'll need to be patient and let your body adjust and adapt.

I worried that I'd never feel sure. I actually was really alarmed, had went and talked to my GP about it. And then, I realized I'd been getting lots of headaches as well. Hadn't been taking my magnesium. And probably wasn't as focused on my sleep as I should be. And I am nearly two years post menopause and things are starting to settle and less, less, less, have less lapses are happening for me as well.

And when I read the research and the science around it that's, really how it tends to happen. So yeah, while they feel frustrating, these can be a common part of the perimenopause journey and they don't mean that you're going crazy or you've got early onset dementia or anything like that, it just needs the right support.

So reducing your inflammation, managing your stress, make some simple lifestyle food choices, like get those basics in your life. They will help, definitely will help. And there's always herbs as well. So, go talk to your local naturopath or working with directly with a naturopath. Maybe you talk to someone at the health food store.

They might be able to give you some of the beautiful herbs that are available and to help with memory and brain health. I also have PerimenoGO, which is able that's how to eat, what to do, how to eat, to help you with those memory problems, those memory lapses, but also the other major challenges that you might face in terms of your fatigue, mood swings, irritability, and weight gain, of course.

So in PerimenoGO, I'll teach you how to feel better in your body and your mind and give you the tools and the strategies and, recipes and nutrition plans designed specifically for women in navigating perimenopause to help you feel amazing in your body again. So you can learn more about perimenopause and take the first step to feeling better in yourself.

Again, the link is in the show notes along with the other episodes I've mentioned today, there's links to them as there as well. And while you're there, if you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe so you never miss an update. I'd also love it if you could leave a quick rating or review, please. It helps more women get shown or find the podcast.

And if you know someone who'd benefit from this content, please share it with them.

So that my friend is all for today. Thank you for listening and sharing your time with me in the next episode, I'm really looking forward to talking about your holiday survival guide, how you can stay energized and enjoy the festivities. And I know it's alarming that I'm bringing up the topic, but it is the fact that you will start having more end of year or festive functions coming up and you're going to get busier and talking about it now gives you time to prep yourself mentally and physically there as well.

So until next time, keep transforming your perimenopause journey from chaos to calm. 

People on this episode