susceptibility to autoimmune illnesses, is sexual hormones.
“It's pretty difficult to find any single factor that's more predictive for [certain] diseases than gender,” said Thomas Insel, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health.47
While more men than women experience extreme aggression, autism spectrum disorders, Gulf War Syndrome, and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), women are more likely than men to suffer from the following health problems, which can add to stress on the brain.
Autoimmune Illnesses
About 75% of all autoimmune disorders happen in women.48 In autoimmune syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS), lupus, Hashimoto's in the thyroid, multiple chemical sensitivity, and rheumatoid arthritis.49 A patient's immune or infection-protecting defenses turn back against her and attack some of her own healthy functional cells and tissues.50
“Sex hormones influence the onset and severity of immune … conditions,” says an article in the American Journal of Pathology.51 That's partly because immune cells have receptors for estrogen and androgens (e.g., testosterone). While androgens and perhaps progestogens may protect from autoimmune disease, says the Oxford Journal of Rheumatology,52 estrogen mostly stimulates the immune system.53
Insomnia
Over 60% of insomnia sufferers are women. Women are susceptible to the common insomnia causes, such as stress, irregular sleep hours, certain foods, caffeine, smoking, lack of exercise, and too much light, often from computers and TV.
But insomnia is also affected by hormonal fluctuations. That means you may wake at night or struggle to fall asleep on premenstrual nights, during perimenopause, and after menopause.54The common tribulations of motherhood, such as being nine months pregnant, having a baby who wants to nurse, or having a young child who wants to sleep with you, certainly make sleeping a challenge.
To learn how to relax and sleep well at night, check out chapter 5.
Depression
Women who suffer from chronic anxiety and stress are more likely to get depressed. Everyday stress is one thing, but women who have had childhood or other trauma (an estimated 20% of women55) are more likely than other women to experience depression. The ratio of females to males who have depression is 2.5 to 1 in the United States.
Depression and its symptoms—lack of initiation, loss of pleasure, disrupted daily circadian rhythms, anxiety, sleep disturbances—dampen the arousal pathways in the brain. Fortunately, exercise, talk therapy, and the right medicine can help reawaken the brain to new paths instead of just depression.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Seasonal affective disorder can range from winter blues to depression. Over 75% if those who have it are women, and the majority of them are in their twenties to thirties.56
What causes SAD? There are several hypotheses:
Oversecretion of melatonin in the winter,
Lack of light, which stimulates specialized cells in the retina that directly connect the eyes to the brain,57
Body-chemistry problems causing the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin to be out of sync and thus interfere with mood, appetite, and sleep patterns,58
Lack of vitamin D.
If you can't move to Costa Rica from November to March, light boxes can help SAD. Check with your doctor about increasing your vitamin D as well.
Anorexia Nervosa
Women who experience anorexia nervosa may have a hypersensitivity to estrogen in the hypothalamus. That part of the brain produces hormones to control body temperature, hunger, moods, and the release of hormones from different glands. This hypersensitivity may create the sensation of having eaten enough before the body is full.
Migraines
A migraine is more than a headache. It's a neurological disease that can include nausea and vomiting; sensitivity to light, touch, and sound; tingling or other sensations in the skin; visual changes, like seeing an aura, halo, or zigzag of lights; sound auras, such as echoes, tremolo, or buzzing; hunger pangs; and slurred speech. And some people get migraines without even the headache.
Not fun, as anyone who's ever had a migraine knows. About one out of twenty men and one out of five women get migraines—chronically (more than half the days each month), periodically (perhaps with the menstrual cycle) and/or episodically (not predictably).
Boys get more migraines than girls—until they reach puberty. Migraines become a predominantly female issue after menstruation begins; women are twice as likely to have migraines around their period, and migraines can be most severe during menstruation. But it's the fluctuation of hormones that can set off migraine sensitivity. For many women with migraines, natural menopause is a blessing, because the hormonal fluctuation ceases.
In addition to hormones, other things, such as food, lights, and red wine, can trigger migraines. But the triggers aren't the cause of migraines. The brain's hypersensitivity is the cause, says Carolyn Bernstein, MD, in her book The Migraine Brain.59 A hypersensitive brain reacts frequently and intensely to brain stress by creating an electrical wave, a red alert, that can make the nervous system go haywire. The electrical-wave reaction isn't unusual, but the overresponsiveness of the migraine brain is.
The effects of the wave can start with physical sensitivity—clothes suddenly feel tight, the head feels hot. Then the wave can incite pain in one or both of the major nerves that run on either side of the head, from behind the ear to the forehead, nose, and jaw. That is why one side of the head may hurt and one of the eyes can throb.
The migraine brain even looks different than a regular brain when seen through a brain scan. Scans done at Massachusetts General Hospital showed that the part of the brain that processes pain, touch, temperature, and sensory information—the somatosensory cortex—was 21% thicker than the somatosensory cortices of those who don't experience migraines.60 That thinner somatosensory cortex either causes the migraines or is the result of them—researchers don't know yet.
Those affected often are vigilant about avoiding what sets them off. That can mean getting sufficient sleep and avoiding low blood sugar, alcohol and/or red wine, the artificial sweetener aspartame, foods containing the amino acid tryanine (such as soy sauce, pepperoni, bananas, and raspberries), toxic cleaning fluids and chemicals, smoke, strong smells, and computers or video games.
Some migraine sufferers are helped by over-the-counter drugs, including those with caffeine. Others use the medication Imitrex, part of the triptan family, which interrupts the biomechanical pain/brainwave effect. Many get some help from magnesium supplements,