Person at our aspen campus were excited to continue to host informative and inspiring conversations between leading health practitioners, advocates, artists, scientists and innovators. Today we are honored to be hosting this fascinating and kind of breakthrough conversation with doctor lisa mosconi and Natalie Morales about the new book turn it into research on brain health. Shes made it her life work to study female brain and its new book she provides women with about that for reducing the risk of dementia. If you dont have the book yet and you interested in buying a copy will put a link in the chat now for you to be able to get it and find more information i i would recommend it. Its fantastic. As we begin to dive into this conversation let me briefly and properly introduce under the wonderful speakers. Lisa mosconi is professor of neuroscience and neurology and radiology at Cornell Medical College or she is the founder and director of the womens brain initiative. And associate director of alzheimers prevention clinic. She is an adjunct facty member of the department of psychiatry at nyu school of medicinend she holds ahd degree in neoscience and Nuclear Medicine. Her research is focused on the early dettion of alzheimers disease in at risk individuals especially women and howemory loss and alzheimers disease can be prevented through the mbination ofedical care and lifestyle modifications involving diet, psical and intellectual fitness. She is also the author of brain food which i another great bk and the xx bin. Welcome, lisa. Thank you souch for having me. Its such a pleasure to be here today. Wonderful. Thank you lisa. We are delighted to be joined by Natalie Morales, is the west coast anchor at nbc today show. Shes a host of dateline and anchor of behind closed doors with Natalie Morales on reels cello. She served as host of nbcs access and cohost of access live as well as news anchor of today which she cohosted the shows third hour. She joined today in 2006 as National Correspondent and reports were all npc platforms including nbc nightly news, dateline and msnbc. We are really grateful, natalie, for your excellent reporting during these Tumultuous Times your we are delighted you have made time for this fascinating talk today but i want to point natalie has a special connection to this. She has a book called simple recipes for Healthy Living from my families kitchen to yours where she shares her Favorite Recipes and tips for a healthy lifestyle. Welcome natalie. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Its my pleasure, peggy. Thank you so much for the one introduction and a wonderful topic and an opportunity for us to really focus on her health especially right now. Dr. Mosconi, this book that you wrote, the xx brain, is fascinating and its so important for women to understand the significance of the research but also the preventative tips you put out in this book so im thrilled to be able to share this time with you and hopefully get the message out to the wider audience. Thank you. Let me turn theicrophone over to you and have a wonderful conversation. Thanks so mh. Mosconi, lets talk first, the book is listed is called the xx bin. We are talking about women and the fact of theatter is that we are twothirds more likely to end up developing alzheimers in r lifetime. I womens bins that different than mens . I kw women are from mars and women are from venus but is it really were wir so differently . We are. We are wired differently. I am a neuscientist. Im a brain scientist to m background in neurology, Nuclear Medicine, so the way i approaed, my objective, i look at brains in many different ways, many differentarameters. What stands out most clearly is that womens brains age differently than mens brains. Something we have learned just recently, and thats a big par of my research, is that the way that our hormones change is really key to brain aging in women which is the connection that is beingargely unexplored hurting much forever. It a very new topic, a very new topic and i think its worth talking about it because all women g throughenopause. That really is quite a thing. Especially for a brains. It is a thing. I am getting there [laughing] at some pnt we allill. Yes. We need to understand what happens to our brain during this transition through menopausend why that is being associated with alzheimers disease for some women and anxiety, with depression, with memory losses, manyther medical conditions that im sure we can target. We will dive deep into all the topics as thats what were also fcinated about i how can i betr perhaps decrease my cnces of developing alzheimers. Look into that political back to what y said that the scientificommunity really opening only have starting to understandhat women and o hormones may be somewhat linked. But yet whi has gender been removed from the problem and from the equation in the medical community . Such a good question and someing that i have personally struggled wit for a very long time. Iave been trying to study wons brains for 20 years, i part because i have some history of alzheimers disease that will affect the women in my family. I started aing as soon as i was 19 i was able to startoing brain scans of wk with Nuclear Medicine department as a volunteer, because my parents are nuclear phycist. It kinds of runs in my famy. Wow. Very interesting. T my questions were doesnt matter to a wom or men in terms of osisisease . It could be genetic, livesck and something else. The answers we just not there. The problem is that we have a huge gender gap inesearch. Especially as related torain health. And still today Womens Brain Health i one of the mos overlooked, underdiagnosed and and research fields. Thats because i would say three things happened. Th first one is women were active excluded from research ba in993, specially strong clinic trials for of the reason i dont knows when to get into. But new research withomen in it. The second thing is that all th medical research that excluded women just substantiated this bias. It justified the vic against womens brains that i ref to bikini magazine. Which is like saying that what makes a woman a woman from a medical perspective is reproductive organ. Parts o the bodyhey see under the bikini. Think about womens health, about their breasts, ories, or hormones. We dont talk about her brain. Actually when we talk aut womens brain, i mean womens health, we never talk about womens brains. Answer office contributed to women being excluded from research a being misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed. Its a fascinating, you taed about your connection to alzheimes, and my motherinlaw was diagnosed in her mid50s wit early onset alzheimers so it has been a passion of mine as well to try to crackhe code and try to figure out what we can be doing better in our lives, our lifestyle. Lets go back to the question of hormones, and specifically esogen with women. What does estrogen have to do with alzheimers . Its a really good question andomething we are actively exploring right now. Our brains do not work in isolation. Our bras are connected with the rest of the body, and especially for women, between the brain and the reproductiv system i really key to brain aging. And that occurs, the communicatn between the brain and the rroductive system. We all know that women are different between the gender. Women have more estrogen. But wt people dont reaze is what we have in the body, the same hormones we have in our brains. They jt have a differe function in the brain. We think of these hormones as being involved in preproduction and having cldren, but in the brain they serve a different completely function that is related to havin energy. So it gives the chance for women literally push the neurons to burn sugar, glucose to make energy. It estrogen is i your brain energy is high. How does that affect the brain as you go through menopau and experience the loss of estrogen . We can see as of theeurons slow down. Thats associated with that process. A lot of women report, not all but something happens inhe brain. Its not the huge part but the brain is also with age, we can see that. For some women,hat changes and its very mild. We doind quite a bit Energy Levels in the brain which i want to try t find that performance. Won perform just as well as men the same page. [laughter] thank you. [laughte womens brain are obligat. Just finding out how to get we do kind of loose energy and the estrogen. Want to understand what happed so we can enforce that mechism. As a couple of chapters in the book but theres a whole section paicularly that focuses on formal replacement trapy and who should think about it or w shouldnt. Ill recommend people readhat because theres a lot of differenareas we go through and say you should or shouldnt. If you had cance for breast cancer, you have to purase differently book for those approaching menopause are already there, what we need to ask ourselves when it comes to hrt . Why d you want to do . There are very Different Things in that. And your strgth, discuss with your dtors. Some women it is just not manageable but then there are other women, it depends on what youre tryg to achieve or alleviate. There are hormonal therapies. Its in some ways but not in the best possible way, for menopause, that has not bee done yet. It is unexplored in the. Im interested in the things that we can do instead ofair mona p. The are strategies that can be used for many women. We are goi to get into that lifestyle, how all of that place a part. But what about genetics . What is the genet connection and link . Mother in law had early onset alzheimers,y husband and i are in health and wellness because we know there is risk for him now. I rommend testing for him. I have a whole chapter in the book about how to approach teing which is a lot of dail on the. It happened for other family members. Multiple familyembers are affected. As an isolated case, there are a number of things clinically, we would le to find out. Basically, it comes in two major forms. As an early onset form caused by genetic mutation. Thats an aggressive form. Im hopingour husband doesnt have that mutation but i is. 1998, 99 of all cases were genetic mutation. The majority of them, it is that mutation but it depends o their lifestyle a environment. Its all of that together. I was going to ask you about that because there are medical risk factorshat could infect your risks of developing alzheimers. Heart disease, mabolic disorders, tbi, traumatic brain injury, canou talk about that . There are many different medical conditions that do not fect the brain or cause it b they could trigger that. They could promote that disease. Especially for women, tse dirders as they do have that component. But i think in person, it is then different factors in the end believe in the book, were just learning how it affects the genders differently. Men and women almost have two dierent pathways than men. For women, they are more hormonal and inflammator there are some risk factors that increase it more in women than in men. It is funny in the way that many affect mor women than men the number one in men is not being married. What . [laughter] why is that . There are so many possibilities in this. The number one thing is not being married to a woman. Its not as much that it i being in a healthy and nurturing relationship. Many years ago, marriage was just not allowed in thisountry country. But wom are very good at taking people. They were inharge of the health of the entire usehold. The medical appointments, making sure the husband a family were doing all the things they need to. Thats a perct segue to lifestyle and prevention. We have some viewers question, somebodys asking, was the single most importanthing a woman can do for postmenopausal brains . The single most important thing is to really look atour lifestyle and find one area where its not what you would like it to be. Everybody is different. For me, reduction, i am not good at that. [laughter] before a lot of women,aybe diet. Youre just not eating healthily for ny. For a happy female brain, mental stimulation d activity. Especially when learning. Learning is for you brain, exercises yr muscles. It stimulates connectn between different neurons. Thats what keeps the plane bring plastic and learning. You needo challenge yourself. Dont read a novel, read something thats very challeing. If you like to watch movies, watch documentaries as well so you engage i what you are watching. My mom would sayour times a week, thats always keeping h brain young. As most o her gains. [laughter] besides that, i know that diet has to be in that. Diet, moderating what you eat but also what kinds of foo we should be eating rea also wrote e book the brain book. Diet is really important for two reasons. Numberne, it has a effect not justn our bodies but our brains. Our binsre made of the nutrients. Especially for women, i recommend antioxidants. Vitamins a, c and e. The more we tend to consume. The second reason, we eat three times a day, most people do. Three times a day,hose are chances every day, you make a choice t support your brain health. Its about getting nutrients to your brain. Your brain will perform so much better for you. I really eat for my brain as much as i can. In italian thats perfect, the mediterranean diet which is what you write about in the book being the dt that most people should follow. I think it is a rlly good wa a very fresh die. The nutrients that the brain wants. I cant be deprived. [laughter] i enjoy my food. What i like about it, it didnt, its women consuming their diet it is significantly better. I think its more the framework. Plant based, vegetab oils, especially unrefined ones and a lot of fiber fir is really good. It helps regulate hormones. This huge thing, hundrs of women showi that the more you eat this way, the ler on in life you experience menopse. The mor in your diet, the earlier in life youo through menopause even if you have no genetic for its. For pleasure, like food is function and something we can actively do, we have control over it. Exercise also is an important factor in you write in the book that slow and steady wins, the moderate ercise is the route to go rather than a lot o people are not,ere going to jims, we could take high intensity classes. Now we are doing the videos at home. Why is slow and steady a better pace for ercise . How much exercise should we be getting . Slow and steady translates, very specifically, not men and women together. Between intensity, very low intensity, y have no gains. With intensity going up, until you reach that the moderate exercise. If you have more high intensity, your gains are increasing it looks le in general, you can do it that way, any exercise is super helpful. For men and women, you look at what works for the average person postmenopausal, you look at exercise, it is muc more sustainae. You do it often enough, then you can see a benefit. For manyeople, you have high intensity and then you just dont do i consistently enough, if you do it right, it is important if you can, its okay. Th no reason to feel better just because its trendy. Is going to a you about sleep. How es poorleep body impact women in the brains as they age . That is my issue. The national fndation of science, they find women needs more sleep than in. We have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. We are also mor easily distracted as well. At middle age, men and women i dont want to sound like we were, hormonal changes, there is a specific part in the brain called the brainstem and use esogen. When the estrogen goes up and down, resending age 35, especially progesterone and its not activated correctly, thats why we hav a tendency to wake up in the middlef the night. Stress is the same. Very high in the firstalf of the night and then there is adrenaline tt goes up and you put a lotf stress and that he wake up at 3 00 a. M. It is really important to prioritize things. Do you sleep well . I dont. Ive been struggling sleeping. Obviously during the pandemic s been worse. I think all of us are feeling stress and anxiety that i am pam premenopausal if iave to get up in the nht and then go back to sleep, it is very hard have been taking valerian and black cohosh which i wan to ask you, supplements that women, one of the ones you recommend . Obviously the are things you should talk with your doctor about and make sure you get something that reacts well with your body. There are some, i thi a lot of pple, it makes a lot of sense but it doesnt really help with that. What we do, we do a l of measuring the antioxints and then we supplement. First of all, weo through a di examination because it is a change in your diet bottom line. In some cases, it is not enough and its helpful and then what we tend to recommend the most, especially for women, omega3 fatty acids. Especially for those who do not eat fish. If you eat a lot of fish, you shouldnt need that. For women who dont e fish, its the highest concentration of omega3 than any oil. Just 1 tablespoon is about half of all the automakers you need for the day. I am using the now. Fascinating. What about vitamin e, see . Antxidants, i would encourage postmenopausal women especially to take them. A lot of women just need to sleep, especlly in combination of progesterone cream really alleviateshat in clinical trials. Something to work because of the side effects. Overthecounter progesterone cream. Yes. Or talk to the doctor for special combination. Its vy strong antioxidants d stimulates fw and oxygen levels to the brain. It keeps you energy high. Vitamins a and honestly, antioxidants really obtain through the food we eat. It is possible for orange, yellows, vegetables and fruit, dark gen leafy vegetables is probably the bes way to supplement. Theres so much infortion in this book that i encourage everybody to read it. Its the excess brain. Oneore question because you talked about testing. If you are asked, what scans do you use to study alzheimers and track progress of the disea . Is the testing accurate . Before we went le, you said you yourself will have brain scan which you have not done before. You can talk about that. I am a big f. Its a very strong diagnostic tool and a really good pricting tool. What we do is a lot, really make sure we address concerns. But you dont have to if you dont want to. We do mri scans and then we do t scans we look at everything we can. We lookt the structure of the brain, we try t see if theres any shrinkage o the brain because thats a big red flag. We look for inflammation in t brain, different parts of yr brain communicates with each other, we look at Energy Levels in the bin during menopause. We lk at vascular damag, especially for women in t brain. We look at a lot of things. I always tell patients the yogest, its really helpful for you f life. Right now you have no promise in your brain now, god forbid in ten years, you have concerns, especially with menopause, i happens a lot. Then