Are Gender and Sexual Identity Linked to Brain Health?

The AHA! Team — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 06:51:50 +0000

American Academy of Neurology (AAN) via Newswise – LGBTQ+ people may be more likely to have negative brain health outcomes, including a higher risk of dementia and late-life depression, than people who are straight, according to a recent study published in the online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. LGBTQ+ people may be more likely to have negative brain health outcomes, including a higher risk of dementia and late-life depression MINNEAPOLIS – LGBTQ+ people may be more likely to have negative brain health outcomes, including a higher risk of dementia and late-life depression, than people who are cisgender and straight, according to a study published in the September 25, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These results do not prove that sexual or gender diversity causes neurological diseases, they only show an association. LGBTQ+ refers to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary, plus other people who are sexually or gender diverse. Sexual diversity refers to individuals whose sexual orientation is different from straight, including lesbian, gay or bisexual people. Gender diversity refers to individuals whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, which includes transgender and nonbinary people. Cisgender refers to individuals whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. “In a world that increasingly recognizes the crucial role of equitable health care, it remains concerning how little is known about the health disparities faced by LGBTQ+ people,” said study author Shufan Huo, MD, PhD at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. “Our study looked at this group, which has been historically underrepresented in neurological research, and found that they had an increased risk of adverse brain health outcomes.” For the study, researchers evaluated data from 393,041 people with an average age of 51. Of the total group, 353,409 were cisgender and straight people, and 39,632 were LGBTQ+ people. Researchers evaluated electronic health records and self-reported data to identify a composite score of the following neurological conditions: dementia, late-life depression and stroke. They then evaluated each disease separately and looked at all subgroups of the LGBTQ+ participants. A total of 21,091 people had a neurological disease. Of those, 11,553 people had late-life depression, 6,605 people had strokes and 2,933 people had dementia. After adjusting for factors that could affect the risk of these three neurological conditions, such as age, smoking or high blood pressure, researchers found that LGBTQ+ people were 15% more likely to develop negative brain health outcomes in these conditions when compared to people who identified as cisgender and straight. Researchers also found that LGBTQ+ people had a higher risk of dementia and late-life depression, 14% and 27% respectively, than people who were cisgender and straight. “Our findings underscore the need for further research focusing on the health care disparities affecting the LGBTQ+ community,” Huo said. “Possible reasons for these disparities could include discrimination, stress, access to health care and policy and legal factors.” When looking at stroke, researchers found a higher risk only for transgender women, who were 68% more likely to have a stroke than cisgender people. A limitation of the study was that it did not look at the causes and mechanisms behind the inequities faced by LGBTQ+ people. For example, the study did not look at gender-affirming hormone therapy in transgender people, which could play a role in increased stroke risks in transgender women. The study was supported by the German Research Foundation. To read the original article click here.

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Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Chapter One: What Happens When We Don’t Use Our Minds Correctly

AHA Publisher — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 08:00:41 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Sometimes it feels like we live in a world characterized by fear. People are fearful about their health, the economy, their jobs, the future, corruption, crime, and their feelings of powerlessness. The cost of this fear is toxic thoughts, toxic stress, anxiety, and depression, which in turn increase our vulnerability to disease. The end result of this fear, anxiety, and illness cycle, if we don’t manage it with our minds, is a society dependent on external factors such as painkillers, medications, wellness fads, and skyrocketing health costs to fix us. But what if there was another way? What if the answer lay inside of you? What if you held the key? Most people understand the need to live a healthy lifestyle, even if they don’t fully understand the impact of their lifestyle choices on disease processes. What many people don’t recognize is the need for proper mind-management and how it both supports and sustains a healthy lifestyle. When our thinking is toxic, it can mess up the stress response, which then starts working against us instead of for us. This, in turn, can make us more vulnerable to disease, which is why many researchers now believe that toxic stress is responsible for up to approximately 90 percent of illness, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Only 5–10 percent of disease is said to come from genetic factors alone. Why? When an individual is in a toxic thinking state, the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and homocysteine can significantly affect the immune system, cardiovascular system, and neurological system.  In fact, excessive stress hormones are so  effective at compromising the immune system that physicians therapeutically provide  recipients of organ transplants with stress  hormones to prevent their immune system from rejecting the foreign implant. Despite a more widespread understanding of the importance of healthy  lifestyle choices, and many incredible resources out there on making good lifestyle choices, many people lack the necessary  mind-management skills they need to apply this knowledge to everyday life. This  isn’t a one-off thing. Mind-management is a skill that needs to be learned; used all day long, every day; and constantly upgraded as we grow from childhood into adulthood. For every new experience, we need a new set of mind-management tools! Now, before you start panicking and thinking that it’s impossible, stop, breathe, and read on. I don’t want you to get stuck thinking it’s hopeless, that you have caused all your own problems, and that you cannot change. This will only make you feel worse about yourself, and it really isn’t the case. You can’t blame yourself for something you didn’t know—but you can empower yourself and shift into change mode when you learn how to manage your thinking. This is a skill that needs to be learned and constantly upgraded—I do this daily, and will continue to do so until I pass on from this world. Most of what I share in this book hasn’t been taught to you before because it’s an area that isn’t well understood. We’re only beginning to understand mind and consciousness, which is exciting. If we’ve come this far without good mind-management skills, imagine where we can go when we’ve learned how to control our thinking! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Are Gender and Sexual Identity Linked to Brain Health?

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Chapter One: What Happens When We Don’t Use Our Minds Correctly