Understanding Your Brain Through Perimenopause and Menopause with Dr. Louisa Nicola

unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Mary Claire Media, LLC

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An estimated 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are currently living with Alzheimer's dementia. The part that should alarm every woman listening is this: almost two thirds of them are women. In this episode, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with neurophysiologist and Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Louisa Nicola to unpack what's really happening to women's brains during perimenopause and menopause and what we can do about it. Louisa Nicola is a neurophysiologist, human performance coach, and founder of Neuro Athletics, a consulting firm that works with elite athletes and high-level professionals to optimize brain health and performance. A former world class triathlete, she transitioned into neuroscience and earned her Master of Medicine in neurophysiology from the University of Sydney. Dr. Nicola is currently pursuing her doctorate studying the effects of resistance exercise on brain health. She focuses on optimizing brain function and longevity, particularly in women, through sleep, nutrition, and exercise interventions. Dr. Nicola reveals how Alzheimer's disease doesn't suddenly appear at 70 but starts quietly in our thirties and forties, building up over a 30-year progression. She explains what's happening in the brain as amyloid beta proteins and tau tangles accumulate, why the hippocampus is the first area to go, and the critical role that sleep plays in clearing these proteins through the glymphatic system. The conversation explores why women are more predisposed to tau protein accumulation than men and how estrogen, progesterone, and prolactin inhibit the enzyme that causes tau proteins to become hyperphosphorylated and toxic. Dr. Nicola explains the connection between declining estrogen during perimenopause and increased Alzheimer's risk, including how estrogen helps mediate glucose metabolism in the brain, supports synaptic connections, and why the loss of this hormonal scaffolding leaves women vulnerable to cognitive decline. Guest links: Louisa Nicola (Instagram) Louisa Nicola (Facebook) Louisa Nicola, MMed, PhD(c) (LinkedIn) Louisa Nicola (YouTube) Louisa Nicola (X) Neuro Athletics The Neuro Experience Podcast (Apple Podcasts) The Brain Code Books“Joyspan,” by Dr. Kerry Burnight“The New Perimenopause,”⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver ⁠"The New Menopause"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver For full show notes, please click here. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let me tell you for every woman listening. And by the way, women represent 70% of all Alzheimer's
0:04.6	disease cases. So two out of three cases are female of Alzheimer's disease. The small percentage
0:11.4	that isn't is like Betty, if you have been given a, you've got a genetic mutation in three
0:17.0	genes, at the pre-sinell and one, pre-inell and two, and the amyloid precursor protein.
0:21.1	That's only like two to three percent of population.
0:23.7	Very percent, okay, small percent.
0:25.1	So the other 95 percent, why are they getting it?
0:28.0	It's through lifestyle interventions, life's the way that you live your life.
0:31.7	So we know that we have agency over it.
0:34.8	So the 70 percent and then the rest of, you know, there's another very small
0:39.0	portion that then has to care for their becoming caretakers. So really women are at the mercy
0:46.5	of this disease. The views and opinions expressed on unpaused are those of the talent and guests alone
1:01.4	and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only.
1:05.5	No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for
1:10.5	professional medical advice,
1:11.9	diagnosis, or treatment.
1:14.9	As many of you know, I am obsessed with the science of women's midlife health.
1:19.7	But there's one piece that keeps women up at night more than anything else, the fear of
1:24.6	losing themselves, the fear of cognitive decline, and the fear of dementia.
1:29.8	The facts are shocking. Around 50 to 55 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer's
1:36.9	disease today, and we expect that number to triple by the year 2050. But the part that
1:43.8	rattles me the most is that only three to
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