Response of Sex Hormones and Cognitive Functions to Exercises in Postmenopausal Elderly Women

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PURPOSE: to determine the effect of aerobic exercise training on sex hormones and cognitive functions and if is there correlation between two factors effect in postmenopausal elderly women BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, accounting for more than 50%...

PURPOSE: to determine the effect of aerobic exercise training on sex hormones and cognitive functions and if is there correlation between two factors effect in postmenopausal elderly women BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, accounting for more than 50% of all dementia types. Its twice more common in females which could be due to increased longevity and sex difference in brain size .Estrogen has neurotrophic action in areas involved in memory and cognition. Post-menopausal women are at increased risk than their male counterpart. Women with Alzheimer have lower endogenous estrogen level which lead to the hypothesis that estrogen could be neuroprotective. Estrogen and androgen receptors are widely distributed throughout the brain e.g. in the cerebral cortex, amygdala, hypo-thalamus and also in the hippocampus which is important for cognitive functioning. There are shown clear associations between sex hormones and activities in memory, emotional and rewarding circuits in the brain measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, several significant correlations were found between serum hormone levels and spatial ability. High absolute estrogen levels, a high estrogen/testosterone ratio and increasing levels during estrogen treatment were all associated with lower spatial ability. This is in agreement with many previous reports of sex differences where women in general tend to perform worse than men in this specific aspect of cognitive function. In menstruating women, a deterioration of spatial ability was demonstrated during high levels of circulating estrogen, and it was improved during the menstrual phase of the cycle when hormone levels are lowest. HYPOTHESES: There is no correlation between sex hormones and cognitive functions in response to exercises in elderly postmenopausal women RESEARCH QUESTION: Is there correlation between sex hormones and cognitive functions in elderly postmenopausal women in response to exercises?

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