Menopausal hot flashes and development of cognitive impairment

Hot flashes have a negative influence on the quality of life in hypogonadal women. There seem to be many regulators of hot flashes that add to the complexity of these profound vasomotor symptoms. In this paper, focus is placed on selected factors that may be involved in the relationship between hot flashes and cognitive status. During the hypogonadal state, the brain becomes relatively deprived of glucose. Hot flashes were found to be associated with transient inadequacies in brain levels of glucose. Neuroglucopenia was shown to initiate a cascade of immediate and delayed reactions leading to neuronal damage. Estrogen is known to diminish neuroglucopenia. In a pilot study on postmenopausal women, it was observed that cognitive performance of women who reported having hot flashes during their menopausal years was better than in women who did not experience hot flashes. It is hypothesized that a hot flash triggers a counterregulatory mechanism of the central nervous system to the insufficiency of glucose delivery to the brain and may have a beneficial effect on cognitive health in postmenopausal women. Possible therapeutic implications of this hypothesis are discussed in the light of current knowledge.