The Brain-Hormone Connection — Dementia Prevention in Midlife with Dr. Ashanthi Gajaweera
1 hr 0 min
Send us Fan Mail Beyond the Thyroid - Episode 59: The Brain-Hormone Connection — Dementia Prevention in Midlife with Dr. Ashanthi Gajaweera Most women in midlife have been told that brain fog, memory lapses, and cognitive changes are just part of getting older. Most doctors aren’t telling them that midlife is also the most important window they have to prevent dementia -- and that 45% of cases are preventable. In this episode, Dr. Dana Gibbs sits down with Dr. Ashanthi Gajaweera, a board-certified neurologist, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, MIT-trained engineer, and founder of Healthspan Neurology PC. Dr. Gajaweera spent over 25 years seeing patients with neurodegenerative disease before building one of the only neurologist-led practices in the country dedicated entirely to cognitive longevity and dementia prevention. Her program, Mind Over Menopause, is specifically designed for women navigating the perimenopausal transition. In this episode you’ll learn: Why 45% of dementia cases worldwide are preventable, according to the 2024 Lancet Commission -- and why most physicians still don’t know thisWhy family history is not a life sentence: only 2% of dementia cases are deterministically inheritedWhy the prevention window opens 20 to 30 years before the first symptom, and why that window shifts earlier for womenWhat amyloid and tau actually are -- and why they represent the end of the Alzheimer’s process, not the beginningThe ABCs of dementia risk: ancestry and genetics, biomarkers including volumetric brain imaging and ApoB, and cognitive testing across 12 domainsWhy neurophobia has created a care gap that is costing midlife women their brain healthWhat the evidence actually shows about estrogen and cognitive decline, why the WHI study used the wrong compound, and what micronized bioidentical progesterone does in the brainWhy ApoB is a better marker than LDL for brain blood flow -- and why most patients have never had it checkedWhere thyroid function fits...