Can menopause impact our mental and cognitive abilities?
In the study, 896 post-menopausal women, averaging 64 years old, were given a list of 11 symptoms – such as hot flushes, brain fog, and mood swings – and were asked to score them between zero to 10 based on how often they experienced them.
The Canadian researchers found that women who recalled experiencing more symptoms also reported facing greater difficulties with thinking, learning, and memory.
Published in the journal PLOS One, these findings also noted that these women also had more mild behavioural impairment symptoms, such as changes in personality, decreased motivation or impulse control issues.
The academics said these findings suggest that the menopausal phase could be important for assessing dementia risk, but added that more work is needed on this topic.
We've consulted experts to help explain the science behind how menopause can affect our mental and cognitive abilities…
Mood
'During perimenopause, your hormones – mainly oestrogen and progesterone – start fluctuating,' says Dr Naomi Potter, menopause specialist and founder of Menopause Care. And these hormonal shifts can take a toll on mood and mental wellbeing, as well as the body.
' Oestrogen plays a big role in brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, which help regulate mood,' explains Potter. 'When oestrogen levels drop, serotonin production can slow down, making you feel lower, more irritable, and more prone to anxiety.
'These ups and downs can also make emotions feel more intense, so anxiety can feel even more overwhelming during perimenopause.'
Sleep
'Between 40-60% of women experience sleep disturbances during the menopause transition,' highlights Potter. 'This can be caused by hormonal changes themselves, as well as symptoms like hot flushes, night sweats, and frequent trips to the bathroom at night.
'Poor sleep can make it harder for your body to handle stress and emotions, leading to lower tolerance, brain fog, and heightened feelings of anxiety.'
Memory and concentration
Oestrogen and testosterone play an important role in memory and cognition.
'When the levels of these hormones drop during menopause and perimenopause, it can lead to an array of symptoms including poor memory, difficulty finding words, difficulty staying focused and a feeling that the brain feels 'fuzzy' or 'cloudy',' explains Dr Angela Rai, GP at The London General Practice. 'This is often described as 'brain fog'.'
Longer-term issues
Some women experience symptoms of depression during menopause.
Unlike temporary mood swings or the worry that comes with anxiety, depression is more persistent, affecting emotions, behaviour, and daily life in a way that doesn't just pass with time, highlights Potter.
'Depressive symptoms are most common during perimenopause – the transition leading up to menopause – when hormone fluctuations are at their peak,' explains Potter. 'This makes it a particularly vulnerable time, so it's important to stay aware of changes in mood and wellbeing during these years.
'While less common, depression can also develop later in menopause, though more research is needed to fully understand why.'
'Even mild emotional or psychological struggles during menopause are a valid reason to seek support,' says Potter. 'There's absolutely no shame in talking to a doctor – no one should have to suffer through menopausal symptoms alone.'
Look into medication options for specific symptoms
'Beta-blockers, such as propranolol, can help with the physical effects of anxiety, like a racing heartbeat, flushing, and shaking, by blocking certain stress-related chemicals in the brain,' says Potter.
'Whereas medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) can help regulate mood by increasing levels of serotonin and dopamine, often referred to as the brain's 'happy hormones'.'
Exercise regularly
'Staying active is one of the most effective ways to boost mood,' highlights Potter. ' Studies suggest that exercise is 1.5 times more effective than medication or therapy for mild to moderate anxiety.'
Practice relaxation techniques
'Practices like mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing exercises, and menopause yoga can help manage stress and anxiety,' notes Potter. 'These techniques encourage present-moment awareness, helping to break cycles of anxious thoughts and reduce emotional reactivity, which can be heightened by hormonal fluctuations.'
Eat a healthy diet
'A well-balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals can positively impact both physical and mental wellbeing,' adds Potter.
Lean on your support system
'Talking to friends, family, or a support group can provide emotional relief,' says Potter. 'Knowing you're not alone in your experience can be incredibly reassuring.'
' Sleep and anxiety can create a vicious cycle, so maintaining good sleep hygiene is crucial,' stresses Potter.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
The power of pulses: 15 easy, delicious ways to eat more life-changing legumes
Worried about rising food prices, your diet's carbon footprint or whether you're eating healthily enough? Believe it or not, there could be a magic bullet: pulses. According to a study by the University of Reading, published in the European Journal of Nutrition in March, adults who eat more pulses – dried beans, peas and lentils – have a higher intake of nutrients including fibre, folate and vitamins C and E; minerals such as iron, zinc and magnesium; and a lower intake of saturated fat and sugar. Similar results have been found in American, Australian and Canadian research. The UK study also found that eating pulses was associated with a more sustainable diet. In her book, Pulse: Modern Recipes with Beans, Peas & Lentils, Eleanor Maidment explains that growing pulses has a positive effect on the environment. 'Many are 'nitrogen fixers', meaning they have the ability to convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into a form that can be used in the soil, making it more fertile for other crops,' she writes. Justine Butler, the head of research at Viva!, says: 'The lowest-impact beef still creates six times the greenhouse gases and uses 36 times more land per gram of protein than peas.' Pulses are filling and good value but, say the Reading researchers, the typical British adult eats only about 15g a day, with the average household spending just £1.68 on pulses a week. UK guidelines state that 80g of pulses (about a third of a tin) counts as one of your five a day. The University of Reading study is part of the Raising the Pulse project, which aims to increase pulse consumption to improve public and planetary health. One of its strategies is adding fava bean (dried broad bean) flour to white bread – similar to a successful programme in Denmark using rye flour to increase wholegrain consumption. Prof Julie Lovegrove, the director of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition at the University of Reading, says: 'These foods are not only nutritious but also incredibly versatile, affordable and sustainable.' If you want to start eating more pulses, here are 15 things you need to know. You don't have to cook pulses for hours. 'Don't be put off by the idea that you have to soak dried pulses in advance,' says Maidment. 'I am rarely organised enough to do so, but thankfully there's a huge range of jarred and canned varieties that require no prep and are hugely convenient. If you can afford to spend a bit more, then jarred varieties have the edge over canned in terms of flavour and texture. Brands such as Bold Bean Co, Brindisa or Belazu are consistently excellent.' But batch-cooking dried pulses is the best value. Jenny Chandler, the author of Super Pulses and Pulse, soaks and cooks a big pot of pulses once a week. 'You will finish up with well over double their volume – it's a really economical way to have a ready supply. They will keep in their cooking water for five days in the fridge and you can freeze any leftovers. Use them in salads, soups, purees, curries, stews and even puddings – they will become the bedrock of your cooking.' Pulses are for everyone. 'You do not have to be vegetarian or vegan to enjoy pulses – far from it,' says Maidment. 'We should all be eating more pulses. For instance, in a traybake, I'll use one chicken thigh per person instead of two, and add a can of chickpeas or butter beans. I often add a can of lentils to bolognese. You're still getting filling protein, but with the added benefits of gut-friendly fibre and numerous other minerals, vitamins and antioxidants.' They make meals go much further. 'Most pulses are relatively cheap and quite mild in taste, making them ideal for bulking out soups, stews and curries without affecting the original flavour,' says Maidment. 'You can often use different varieties interchangeably, depending on what you have to hand.' Chandler adds a handful of cooked pulses to all sorts of dishes. 'Throwing a few chickpeas or cannellini beans into a simple tomato sauce with pasta not only ups the nutritional profile, but also keeps you feeling full for much longer,' she says. Baked beans are just the beginning. 'By far the most eaten pulse in the UK is the haricot bean due to its starring role in tinned baked beans,' says Maidment. 'Butter beans, cannellini beans, black beans and kidney beans are also popular, but there is a huge variety of beans to try. For instance, flageolet beans are delicate, pale-green beans popular in French cooking – try them in a slow-braised lamb stew with garlic, thyme and white wine.' Chandler loves yin yang beans, AKA calypso or orca beans. 'These black and white beans are utterly beautiful and taste wonderful in chilli,' she says. But beans on toast still rules. 'My favourite pulse-based dish is garlicky beans and bitter greens on toast, topped with chilli oil,' says Joe Yonan, the author of Cool Beans. You can make (almost) anything with chickpeas. 'The chickpea is my favourite pulse, for its versatility,' says Yonan. 'It is the basis of hummus, the best dip on the planet. It's great in a coronation chickpea sandwich, and it holds its shape in salads and stews.' For a snack, Yonan mixes cooked chickpeas with olive oil and spices (such as za'atar, Chinese five spice, chaat masala or smoked paprika) and roasts them in the oven for an hour at 150C/300F. 'I then turn off the oven but leave them in there to completely cool – it dries them out and makes them really satisfyingly crunchy.' He also uses chickpea (AKA gram) flour to make farinata or socca, a savoury pancake; panisse (chickpea fries); and bhajis and pakoras. 'Sometimes I use it as a base for a sort of non-traditional, don't-tell-the-Italians pizza.' Lentils cook more quickly than most pulses. Red split lentils are especially quick, cooking in about 15 minutes. Lentils don't need soaking, but it does reduce the cooking time. Maidment likes to experiment with different dals. 'Regional Indian dals can be made with a range of lentils – yellow moong, black urad, chana dal – each bringing a slightly different flavour and texture,' says Maidment. But she also has a soft spot for tinned lentils. 'I often roast drained, tinned lentils with olive oil and crushed garlic to boost their flavour and add crispness before throwing them into a salad – perhaps ricotta and prosciutto, or chopped fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.' Pulses make delicious dips. 'Hummus is the classic, but you can blend most pulses into dips,' says Maidment. 'Fava, a fabulous Greek split yellow pea dip, is absolutely worth making.' Blend cooked split yellow peas with caramelised onions and garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and a little of the beans' cooking liquor or water to make. Pulse liquid has many uses. 'Jarred and canned pulses are usually stored in a liquid known as aquafaba,' says Maidment. 'It can be great for adding creaminess to savoury dishes or used as an egg alternative in baking.' She advises checking the salt levels and ingredients list before using – some pulses have added preserving and firming agents. Black beans make the best veggie burgers, says Yonan. The Guardian's Meera Sodha agrees. She mashes a drained tin of black beans with breadcrumbs, garlic and onion powders, chipotle paste, dijon mustard, tomato ketchup and a splash of aquafaba, shapes them into patties, then fries them in olive oil until crispy. British pulses are having a revival. Maidment and Chandler both recommend carlin peas, pleasingly also known as black badgers, which are a heritage British pulse. They are available dried and cooked from companies such as Hodmedod's. 'They're small, nutty brown peas, and make a great alternative to chickpeas, with a similarly impressive nutrient profile,' says Maidment. She roasts cooked carlin peas until crispy, then adds them to salads such as quinoa, broccoli and halloumi. Chandler uses them in dips and curries, and to make a version of refried beans. 'They're much more versatile than yellow or green dried peas as they don't have such a pronounced 'pea' flavour,' she says. In the US, Yonan suggests the lady pea, a spherical white bean that is popular in southern cuisine. Pulses make great protein shakes. 'A handful of cooked pulses added into a smoothie will give it a great creamy texture and make it more nourishing,' says Chandler. She adds black beans or borlotti beans to dark berry smoothies, and chickpeas, cannellini beans or butter beans to green smoothies. Pulse-based pasta is worth a try. There is an increasing range of high-fibre pasta made from pulse flour: peas, lentils, chickpeas, black beans, mung beans … Chandler enjoys this alternative pasta, but says she doesn't use it in classical Italian dishes: 'I may use it in a pasta salad, say, or team it with a blue cheese and walnut sauce.' Yonan agrees that pulse pasta is best paired with 'pungent flavours – super-garlicky or spicy'. Pulses aren't just for savoury dishes. Yonan makes a chocolate and chickpea tart, and adds adzuki beans to brownies. 'Adzuki beans are used in a lot of Asian desserts, such as mochi and ice-cream,' he says. Maidment prefers to use kidney beans in her brownies, while Chandler has a recipe for a simple chocolate and cannellini bean mousse. Drain and retain the liquid from a tin of cannellini beans. Blitz the beans with 150g of melted dark chocolate and an optional tablespoon of cocoa powder. Whisk the liquid for five to 10 minutes, until frothy. Fold into the melted chocolate and bean mix, and sweeten with a couple of tablespoons of maple or date syrup. Chill the mix before eating, perhaps topped with some chopped stem ginger in syrup, or served with fresh raspberries. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Metro
4 days ago
- Metro
BBC star could be first ginger Bond after ‘screen-testing for role'
An underdog in the race to cinch the role of James Bond has apparently already screen-tested for the role. Six years after Daniel Craig announced his retirement from the franchise, fans are wildly speculating who may take on the role of 007. Former favourite Idris Elba, 52, previously ruled himself out from playing the British spy, while other hotly tipped actors, including James Norton and Theo James, have not confirmed any involvement. The current front-runner to become Bond is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while bookies have also given preferential odds to the likes of Henry Cavill, Jack Lowden, Tom Holland, and Callum Turner. But for the last couple of months, 37-year-old actor Scott Rose-Marsh, has been cropping up on betting sites, and new reports suggest he's taken one step further in the race. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the star screen-tested for the role sometime in late June. It was reported that he read sides from 1995's GoldenEye, presumably for director Denis Villeneuve, who became attached to the project in June. It was added that he was given just one piece of direction before testing: 'Don't impersonate a previous Bond.' The actor, who Betfred currently places in 12th place in the running with odds of 12/1, is a relative unknown compared to other candidates. He previously appeared in movies like Wolves of War and Code of Silence, but is otherwise a lesser-known film star. The announcement from Amazon MGM Studios that Denis Villeneuve will helm the next James Bond film is a dramatic move marking a creative shift for the 007 franchise, and signalling a new era for Britain's most iconic spy. The Canadian director, best known for directing Dune and Dune: Part Two, as well as Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Sicario, and Prisoners, expressed reverence for the character. 'Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007,' he said in a statement released Wednesday. 'I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I'm a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he's sacred territory.' While acknowledging the enormous expectations, Villeneuve said he intends to 'honour the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come.' He called the opportunity 'a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honour.' The announcement comes during a period of major upheaval behind the scenes of the Bond universe. More Trending Amazon Studios officially purchased MGM for $8.45billion (£6.7billion) in 2022, with a new agreement over creative control meaning Bond — and whoever is next to play 007 – is entirely under the streamer's control. It is a landmark decision as family-run Eon Productions has brought Bond to the big screen since the franchise began. After decades of tight creative control, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson – heirs to the franchise through their father, original Bond producer Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli – have ceded key decision-making power to Amazon MGM Studios. Given all the changes in the franchise, it's perhaps not surprising if a relatively unknown actor like Scott Rose-Marsh takes on the role. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Destination X viewers slam 'unfair' twist as they warn they're going off show MORE: James Bond film dubbed 'the best' by fans finally hits free streaming service MORE: Destination X's casting decisions are holding it back from success
Daily Mirror
07-08-2025
- Daily Mirror
Titanic director James Cameron warns of ‘Terminator-style' AI weapons threat
Oscar-winning director James Cameron has warned that the dystopian future he imagined in The Terminator may no longer be confined to fiction as AI takes over. The filmmaker raised fears that artificial intelligence could soon control military systems, including nuclear weapons. The Canadian filmmaker, 70, told Rolling Stone magazine that an arms race relying on AI presents a 'dangerous' scenario that could spiral beyond human control. His comments came as he promoted the new book Ghosts of Hiroshima, which he plans to adapt into a feature film. 'I do think there's still a danger of a 'Terminator'-style apocalypse where you put AI together with weapons systems, even up to the level of nuclear weapon systems, nuclear defence counterstrike, all that stuff,' Cameron said. 'Because the theatre of operations is so rapid, the decision windows are so fast, it would take a super-intelligence to be able to process it, and maybe we'll be smart and keep a human in the loop. 'But humans are fallible, and there have been a lot of mistakes made that have put us right on the brink of international incidents that could have led to nuclear war. So I don't know.' The Avatar and Titanic director, whose 1984 hit The Terminator featured a self-aware AI system named Skynet launching nuclear Armageddon, said the convergence of today's crises, from climate change to AI, should be taken seriously. 'I feel like we're at this cusp in human development where you've got the three existential threats: climate and our overall degradation of the natural world, nuclear weapons, and super-intelligence,' he continued. 'They're all sort of manifesting and peaking at the same time. Maybe the super-intelligence is the answer. I don't know. I'm not that, but it might be.' Cameron's concerns about AI are longstanding. In a viral 2023 interview, he poured cold water on the idea that artificial intelligence could replace human screenwriters, saying: 'I just don't personally believe that a disembodied mind that's just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said, about the life that they've had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality , and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it… I don't believe that's ever going to have something that's going to move an audience. You have to be human to write that. I don't know anyone that's even thinking about having AI write a screenplay.' Despite his reservations, Cameron has embraced certain uses of AII, particularly in relation to the spiralling cost of filmmaking. In September 2024, he joined the board of Stability AI, the firm behind the image-generation tool Stable Diffusion. Speaking on a podcast earlier this year, he outlined how he believes AI could help reduce production budgets without eliminating human jobs. 'If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I've always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see, Dune, Dune: Part Two, or one of my films or big effects-heavy, CG-heavy films, we've got to figure out how to cut the cost in half,' he said. 'Now that's not about laying off half the staff at the effects company. That's about doubling their speed to completion on a given shot, so your cadence is faster and your throughput cycle is faster, and artists get to move on and do other cool things and then other cool things, right? That's my sort of vision for that.'
