For women with polycystic ovary syndrome, adopting healthy lifestyles could prove extremely important. Physical exercise and proper attention to mental health, in fact, help keep our brain young even in later life. And a new study from the University of California, San Francisco suggests the possibility that the complications of this endocrine disorder may also include memory problems and difficulties with reasoning, a sign of premature brain aging that begins to become noticeable on reaching middle age.
The research
“Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common reproductive problem affecting up to 10% of women,” explains Heather Huddleston, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who took part in the study. “It has been linked to metabolic problems such as obesity and diabetes, which can in turn cause heart problems, but very little is known about the effects it can have on brain health. And these are aspects that can affect people on many levels, including quality of life, career success and financial security.”
The study, published in the journal Neurology, involved about 900 women, who were followed by the researchers for a period of 30 years. At the end of the monitoring period, all participants underwent a series of tests designed to measure memory, verbal fluency, information processing speed and attention. At the same time, the researchers checked for the appearance of polycystic ovary syndrome symptoms in all participants, confirming the diagnosis in 66 of them. At that point, the results of the cognitive health tests were compared between healthy participants and participants who had developed the disorder, to verify the possible presence of differences attributable to the condition.
The results
Women with the syndrome scored worse on as many as three out of five tests: memory, attention and verbal abilities. A subgroup of participants also underwent brain scans. Twenty-five of them had developed polycystic ovary syndrome, and the analyses showed lower white matter integrity (the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the brain to the spinal cord), a feature that the researchers interpreted as a sign of premature aging of the nervous system.
The results will need to be confirmed by more in-depth studies, but they suggest the possibility that the endocrine disorder underlying polycystic ovary syndrome may also lead to a greater risk of early cognitive decline in patients. This suggests an important role for prevention in this category of patients.
“Further research will be needed to confirm these results, determine how the observed changes occur and test how to reduce the chances of developing these memory and reasoning problems,” she stresses. “Making changes to one’s habits, devoting more time to cardiovascular exercise or to promoting one’s mental health, could for example help improve brain aging in this patient population.”
