Hello, everyone. Im the codirector and of Aspen Global Innovators Group at the Aspen Institute and i want to thank you all for joining us today for what will be a fascinating conversation. And while the pandemic has prevented us from gathering in person on the campus, we are so excited to continue to host and informative and inspiring conversations between the leading health practitioners, advocates, artists, scientists and innovators. We are honored to be hosting these three fascinating breakthrough conversations about the new book and her research on womens brain health. Shes made it her lifework to study the female brain to provide women with a roadmap for reducing the risk of dementia. If you dont have the book yet and you are interested in buying a copy we will put a link in the chat for you to be able to get it and by more information. As we begin to dive into this conversation, let me briefly and properly introduce our wonderful speakers. Professor of neuroscience and radiology and Medical College where she is the founder and director of the initiative and associate director of the alzheimers prevention clinic. At the department of psychiatry at nyu school of medicine and holds a phd to create neuroscience and Nuclear Medicine. Her research is focused on the Early Detection of alzheimers disease and at risk individuals, especially women, and how memory loss and alzheimers disease can be prevented through a combination of medical care and lifestyle modifications involving diet, physical and intellectual fitness. Shes also the author of brain food which is another great book. Welcome, lisa. It is a pleasure to be here today. Thank you. We are also delighted to be joined by natalie morale was as you ow the west coast anchor of nbc today show and host of teline and the anchor of behind closed doors. The host and cohost of access live as well as the news anchor of today where she cohosted the shows served our. Shes joined today in 26 of us the National Correspondent and reports for all platforms incling the nightly news, dateline and msnbc. We are grateful for your excellent reporting during these tumultuous times. So, we are delighted youve made time for this fascinating talk today. I also want to point out that natalie has special connectn to this. She has a book called simple repes for healthy livg from my family kitchen to yourshere she shar her favorite recip for a heahy lifestyle. Welcome we are delighted to have you. T is my pleasure. Thank you so much for the warm introduction. It is a wonderfulopic and opportunity to focus on our health especiay right now. This boothat you wrote is fascinating, and i thi that its so important for women to understand the significancof the research but also the prentative that you put out. To turn the microphone over to you andave a conversation. Thank you so mh. Lets talk first the book as we said is called the brain so we are talking about women and the fact of the matter we are two thirds more likel our womens brains that different i know men are from mars and women are from venus. With Nuclear Medicine, the way at i approach this province in the objective in ny different ways and parameters and what comes out most clearly is that wons brains age differently and something that we have learned just recently is the way that our hormones change is the key which is the connection to being largely unexplored pretty much forev, so the new topic we are talking about because all women go through menopause and that really is quite a thing im told, and especially for the brn. It is a thing. Im getng there. [laughter] at som point we all will. And we need to uerstand whats happening to our brain during the transition to menopause and why its associated [inaudible] and anxiety, depression, memory loss. The are medical conditions. A. We are going to dive deep into all of those topics because i think that is wha we are all so fascinated with is how can i better perhaps decrease my chances of developing alzheimers. We will get into that. Let me go ck to what you said that the Scientific Community only nows starting to understand that women and our hormones may be somewhat linked. But yet why has gender been removed from the problem and fromhe equation in the medical community . That is a good question and something that i have struggled with for a lon time. Iveeen trying to study womens brains for 20 years in part because i have a famy history of alzheimers disease that really affect the wom in my family. I started asking, since was 19 ias able to work with Nuclear Medicine it kind of rs in my family. Its very interesting. But nobody had answered for me the question. Is it genetics or a lifestyle or something else. The pblem is we have a huge gender gap in reseah related to brain health andtill today its one of the most overlooked and underresearched fields of medicine and i would say theres three things that happened. The first one is women were excluded during research uil 1993 especially from clinica trials. The point is there was no research with women in it and the second thi all this medical research that excluded women justified this bias which is like saying that whatakes a woma a woman from a medical perspective is reproductive orga. If you think about a woman health its about her breasts, ovaries, hormones, we dont talk about her brain especially when we talk about womens brains, i mean, about womens health, we ner talk about womens brains. So from being underresearched, not diagnosed. Its fascinating you talk about your connection to alzheimers. My motherinlaw was diagnosed iner mid50s with early onset alzheimers, so it has been a passionf mine as well to try to crack the code and figure out what we can be doing better in our lives and lifestyle. Lets go back to the question of hormones and specifically estrogen with women. But what peop dont realize is you just have a different function. But in the brain it is a completely different function and for women to push th sugar and glucose to make energy. The brain on you keep your Brain Healthy and young. But then to say casually over me and without that protection. As you start going through menopause and start to experience that lost the restaurant on estrogen . And that is associated with that accelerated aging process. Something happens inside the ain. Its not huge and we can see that on the brai scan. We have hundreds o millions of the energy that is ingraine. But that does not correlate women perform just as well as men of the same age. [laughter] and how we are compensating. And in that compensatory mechanism. There is a whole section particularly that focuses on rmone replacement thepy i would recommend peoplwould read that if you cancer east canc survivors what do we need to be asking ourselves when it comes to hrt . We need it. And that can be achieved to safely. Some are just not manageable. And the symptoms and with that prevention but if we discussion anger before menopause so it is very important but the most interesting we can do instead because there are many natural. So what about the genetic connection . And my motherinlaw with early onset alzheimers my husband and i are very much about health andellness because they we want we know there is a risk for him. Anto encourage testing. And wi the other family members. And that is a factor in the isolated ce it doesn and with that assessment and basically wh the ear onset that is caused by genetic mutation. In 1998, 99 percent all cay genetic mutation. And for the majority of those and altogether toodulate. Let me ask you about that because there are some medical risk factors i could also afct your risk of developing alzheimers. Heardisease, metabolic disorders, traumatic brain injury, can you talk about that . Yes. There are many different medical conditions that would affect the brain that they could promote and that there were over 30 and were just learning of the fabric men get more inflammatory. Some are more in women than in men. Many of these facts affect more than men but the biggest factor is that they are not married. Aughter] but that one is to not be married. [laughter] and then to be in a supportive and hethy and nurturing relationship and samesex marriage and women are really good at taking care of peoe. And with the health of the entire people and then to schedule a medical appointment so that that was very cute when i read that. So asking the single most important thing a womacan do for the postmenopausal brain . And then to look at your lifestyle and where you would like that to be everybody has a different baseline and them before and after menopause ain that incdes mental stimulation especially when learning is involved that is to your brain that exercises to your muscle. It stimulates connection and thats a really keeps the brain plastic which keeps it young ich is the learnin and we somethi thats very challenging. My mom plays computer ges for times a week so that always kee her brain young. And pying ges. I know that diet, how important is moderating what you e but also what kinds of foods should be be eating his you also wrote the brain book. Thats right because number one to have an effect the brains are made of nutrients so we really need to replenish the nutrients and i recommend antioxidants. And withhat intake of antioxidants in the diet and throughout the lifespan. That you consume on a daytoday. And we eat three times a day. Most people do. Yoliterally have Three Chances every day to make a choice to support your brain health. That is so much better for us. And then specifically with my own diet. The mediterranean diet which is what you write about in the book is t diet that most people should follow. It is a really good template. Its very fresh nutrientshat the brain needs all the time is n a deprivation diet. And then to enjoy my food. As a result of thousands of years to do significant burial none to do better significantly. It doesnt have to be mediterranean i think if it is plan based and Vegetable Oil and so fish and legumes. With those that show that women to go thrgh menopause. Interesting. They with those omega3 fatty acids and they also show that earlier even i you have no genetic reason to do it but it is function and is something we can actively do we have control over it exercise is al an imptant factor in iting and the work that slow and steady a moderate exercis and with those high intensity classes. Now we are doing videos at home. Why is slow and steady a betterlace to exercise . , should we be getting cracks and really starting to loo into that. And not men and women together and them to stay clear with a very low intensity there is no gainut but if you go to high intensityour gain increases. And he exercises super helpful. And with auge group of people for what works for the average person. And so looks like a moderate exercise that is sustainable and often do it often enough. But for many peoe you go very high iensity and interest to feeletter about it. Soow does poor sleep quality impact women in their bin as they age . The National Science foundationhe much at a age we have trole falling asleep and staying asleep in the quality and that seems to and with that impa as wel because there are particular parts of the brain from the brainstem and that estrogen and activated when the estrogen started to go up and down at age 25 especially progesterone than it isnt correctly and thats why we wake up in the mdle of the nightnstead because the melatonin i high and then is it decreases the cortisol d adrenaline. D then you wake up at 3 00 oclock in the morning. A struggle sleeping well i think with the pandemic it has been worse feeling sess and anxiety more but i do feel i get hot in the middle ofhe night i have to get up and then to goack to sleep is very hard. I read this in your book i have been taking valerian and black coat bosch i wanted to ask for supplements. What are the ones that you recommend . And that it reacts well with your body. And that it dsnt really help. And we do have testing and any efficiencies we supplement. And a supplemento change the diet. In some cases a healthy diet is not enough. D what we tend to recommend th most especially the anoxidants if you eat fish im very fond of flaeed oil for women. That dont get fish ry often i eat fish the flaxseed oil has the highest concentration of omega3 antioxidants of any only all. Just 1 tablespoon is about half of the omega threes you need for the day. That is fascinating. What about vitamin e, c. The antioxidant is really important for women and especially to consider taking them. Especially the combination of a progesterone cream that really alleviates the night sweats in Clinical Trials tt has been shown to work for many women in which case it doesnt work. And th those antioxidants as well it also stimulates bld flow and oxygen levels and to keep the energy high and that is the precursor. And antioxidants so it is possible to consume more orange and yellow vegetables and fruits and much that they can tak there is so much information in this book encourage everyone to read it. It is thask ask brain. So what do you u to study alzheimers and track the disease . That you yrself would have a brain scan which you have not done before and talk about that. And a ve strong diagnostic tool in those patients to make sure that you nt have to do it. That we look at and then also work at the nucar medicine. And to do everything that we can trying to see if there is an shrinkage. And looking at infmmation in the brain or the integrity and then look at Energy Levels in the brain. And look at toxicology. And thats important especially for women. And then and then because it comes for lif and then you have no promise. But i have no province. And that happens a lot. And if you are having trouble and with a verylear problem. See you have a baseline to compare it to. Yes. And then to check for change because if there is no change and then we wld need to readdress the bin. Again there is so much information in this book i is called the x x brain. Brary and i read it cover to cover within a couplof hours because i wanted to digest everbit of information. Thank you so much thank you to who participated today and if you missed this webcast you casee at a future time as well. Thank you very much