{"id":26385,"date":"2025-04-22T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26385"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:23:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:23:53","slug":"sex-hormones-are-brain-hormones-what-does-this-mean-for-treating-brain-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26385","title":{"rendered":"Sex Hormones Are Brain Hormones. What Does This Mean for Treating Brain Diseases?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Estrogen is the Meryl Streep of hormones, its versatility renowned among scientists. Besides playing a key role in sexual and reproductive health, it strengthens bones, keeps skin supple, regulates sugar levels, increases blood flow, lowers inflammation and supports the central nervous system.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou name the organ, and it promotes the health of that organ,\u201d said Roberta Brinton, a neuroscientist who leads the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

But appreciation for estrogen\u2019s more expansive role has been slow in coming. The compound was first identified in 1923 and was henceforth known as the \u201cfemale sex hormone\u201d \u2014 a one-dimensional reputation baked into its very name.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstrogen\u201d comes from the Greek \u201coestrus,\u201d a literal gadfly known for whipping cattle into a mad frenzy. Scientifically, estrus has come to mean the period in the reproductive cycles of some mammals when females are fertile and sexually active.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Women don\u2019t enter estrus; they menstruate. Nevertheless, when researchers named estrogen, these were the roles it was cast in: inducing a frenzy and supporting female sexual health. Now, estrogen is gaining recognition for what may be its most important role yet: influencing the brain.<\/p>\n

Neuroscientists have learned that estrogen is vital to healthy brain development but that it also contributes to conditions including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer\u2019s. Changes in estrogen levels \u2014 either from the menstrual cycle or external sources \u2014 can exacerbate migraines, seizures and other common neurological symptoms.<\/p>\n

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Estrogen is the Meryl Streep of hormones, its versatility renowned among scientists. Besides playing a key role in sexual and reproductive health, it strengthens bones, keeps skin supple, regulates sugar levels, increases blood flow, lowers inflammation and supports the central nervous system.\u201cYou name the organ, and it promotes the health of that organ,\u201d said Roberta Brinton, a neuroscientist who leads the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona.But appreciation for estrogen\u2019s more expansive role has been slow in coming. The compound was first identified in 1923 and was henceforth known as the \u201cfemale sex hormone\u201d \u2014 a one-dimensional reputation baked into its very name.\u201cEstrogen\u201d comes from the Greek \u201coestrus,\u201d a literal gadfly known for whipping cattle into a mad frenzy. Scientifically, estrus has come to mean the period in the reproductive cycles of some mammals when females are fertile and sexually active.Women don\u2019t enter estrus; they menstruate. Nevertheless, when researchers named estrogen, these were the roles it was cast in: inducing a frenzy and supporting female sexual health. Now, estrogen is gaining recognition for what may be its most important role yet: influencing the brain.Neuroscientists have learned that estrogen is vital to healthy brain development but that it also contributes to conditions including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer\u2019s. Changes in estrogen levels \u2014 either from the menstrual cycle or external sources \u2014 can exacerbate migraines, seizures and other common neurological symptoms.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26387,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26388,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385\/revisions\/26388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}