How the Hormone Levels in Our Body Affect Our Memory

hormone 2 As we age the mind gradually begins to decline along with the body. Memory lapses become more apparent and regular functions such as remembering names and phone numbers become harder. It’s a fact of life we take for granted without really having much explanation beyond “We’re getting old.” We know that hormones affect our reproduction and energy levels but have you ever considered the idea that it might be responsible for memory loss too?

How Hormones Affect the Mind

When we deal with stress, our body is overrun with cortisol. To counteract the effects of cortisol the body then produces higher amounts of other hormones. The trouble is that the more these hormones and cortisol move through your system the more wear and tear they put on your brain. Memory takes the biggest hit because cortisol prevents new memories from forming and blocks your mind from going into memories already stored in there.

When we are in stressful situations, energy is diverted from the brain to the muscles so that we can react; the action that allows for fight or flight. The trouble is that it draws that energy from the hippocampus and leaves it open to the effects of cortisol. Large amounts of stress have been shown to damage the hippocampus, the center for memory and learning. If you’ve ever forgotten what you were doing in the middle of a stressful situation, you’ve experienced this hormonal interaction in action.

As we age, the hippocampus loses cells, slowing its ability to give feedback to stop cortisol production. This means that the cortisol gets more and more ability to negatively affect the hippocampus and it only worsens as time goes on.

The Role of Estrogen

Estrogen affects mood, language skills, attention and memory. Essentially estrogen acts as a networking hormone in the brain, making the right connection to get certain responses in the mind via neuro transmitters. Women dealing with menopause may be dealing with symptoms such as irritability, mood swings and forgetfulness due to declining estrogen levels in their bodies. With hormone treatment these symptoms can be improved, but only if estrogen is the source of these behaviors.

What You Can Do to Reduce the Decline

The best way to avoid the damage incurred by old age by all counts is to not act your age. Don’t sit around the house, be active! Join a water exercise class. Play sports. Read more books or take up a hobby. Every time we take on a new task, build a new skill, challenge our mind and our body we force it to remain active and alert. This in turn helps the body in resisting the symptoms associated with aging and the decline, both physical and mental. If we can also consistently reduce the amount of stress in our lives, we’ll be less likely to face a drastic decline as we age.

Talk these things over with your doctor and see what advice they offer for improvement. It also helps to have testing done to evaluate hormonal levels in your body before treatment.