New study explains why Alzheimer’s disease affects women more than men

According to the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, one million French people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, 60% of them are women. This inequality between the sexes still remains partially unexplained. But new research from the Cyreron center in Caen has just provided some answers.

Inserm Research Director Gael Chetela specializes in the study of neurodegenerative diseases. At the Cicero Center in Caen (Calvados), she supervised the research of a young researcher, Julie Gonneau, a member of the NeuroPresage team.

The results of this gender-specific study shed light on the relationship between physical activity and Alzheimer’s disease.

Women and men are not in the same boat when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease. What do we already know?

Today we know certain risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease: lack of physical activity, high-fat diet, low level of education, etc. Our work is aimed at better understanding gender differences in the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. We know that there are differences depending on whether you are a man or a woman, but there is not enough work on this issue.

But you just published a study on the question: What was the focus of your work?

Researcher Julie Gonneau studied the relationship between physical activity and brain activity in people over 60 years of age. For both men and women this connection exists, but it is not the same brain activity.

In women, brain functioning correlates with physical activity, and in men, amyloid deposits correlate. Alzheimer’s disease is defined by two types of lesions, one of which is the accumulation of these deposits. In men, this process is slowed down by physical activity. Not among women.

Women’s longer life expectancy has long been thought to explain this phenomenon of increased disease risk… But are women ultimately much less protected than men from Alzheimer’s disease?

Yes, and this is something we didn’t know before. In another study conducted with another student, we examined anxiety levels. We know that this is also a risk factor. The more anxious and stressed we are, the higher our risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It has been shown to be more pronounced in women.

Already because the level of anxiety increases more in women. And then, because the more depressive symptoms women have, the more their brains change. A correlation that men don’t have.

What can these results be used for?

We want to make recommendations, recommend preventive measures that are more suitable for each person, both depending on gender and depending on different age groups. This is preliminary work, there is still a whole research project ahead.

But we might, for example, recommend treating anxiety in women aged 20 to 40 and cardiovascular risks in men of the same age.