S1 Ep32: Are Your Hot Flashes Making You Foggy? Forgetful? with Dr. Pauline Maki

If you are peri or post-menopausal and can’t remember the name of your next-door neighbor or why you walked in a room, you are not crazy, you are not heading towards dementia, and you are not alone.  In this episode, Dr. Streicher is joined by Dr. Pauline Maki, a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Obstetrics & Gynecology. For over 25 years, Dr. Maki has led a program of NIH-funded research on women and cognition, with a focus on cognitive change in menopause. She is THE expert when it comes to what happens to your brain on menopause. 

*Due to a technical problem, there are periodic growling noises in this episode which could not be removed! 

In this episode, Dr. Maki and Dr. Streicher discuss: 

• How common is it for women to be FORGETFUL when they are going through peri menopause 
• WHY this happens
• The relationship between hot flashes and cognition
• How long COGNITIVE CHANGES from hormonal changes last
• If cognitive problems during peri-menopause are predicative of getting ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
• The impact of MOOD on cognitive changes during the peri-menopause
• Which DIET, VITAMINS, EXERCISE, ALCOHOL and other lifestyle choices help 
• The relationship between ADHD and cognitive changes in peri-menopause 
• Specific things you can do to maintain BRAIN HEALTH
• What the SCIENCE says about the benefit of hormone therapy in terms of cognitive function?
• If women who do NOT HAVE HOT FLASHES BENEFIT from hormone therapy
• If hormone therapy decreases the risk of DEMENTIA down the road
• HOW LONG someone should stay on hormone therapy to get the full cognitive benefit 

For more on this topic: 

Episode 17 Menopause in the workplace

Episode 22 Dreaming of Sleep with Dr. Faubion

Hot Flash Hell: A Gynecologist's Guide to Turning Down the Heat

Lauren Streicher, MD is a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause. She is a certified menopause practitioner of the North American Menopause Society. 

Dr. Streicher is the medical correspondent for Chicago’s top-rated news program, the WGNMorningNews, and has been seen on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NPR, Dr.Radio, Nightline, Fox and Friends, The Steve Harvey Show, CBS This Morning, ABCNewsNow, NBCNightlyNews, 20/20, and WorldNewsTonight. She is an expert source for many magazines and serves on the medical advisory board of The Kinsey Institute, Self Magazine and Prevention Magazine. She writes a regular column for The Ethel by AARP and Prevention Magazine. 

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Books by Lauren Streicher, MD

 Slip Sliding Away: Turning Back the Clock on Your Vagina-A gynecologist’s guide to eliminating post-menopause dryness and pain

Hot Flash Hell: A Gynecologist's Guide to Turning Down the Heat

Sex Rx- Hormones , Health, and Your Best Sex Ever

The Essential Guide to Hysterectomy