More Hot Flashes and Night Sweats During Menopause May Be Linked to Brain Health

A new study published in Neurology showed that women who have more hot flashes and night sweats during menopause may have more white matter hyperintensities (WMH), which have been correlated with an increased risk of stroke, Alzheimer disease (AD), and cognitive decline. 

After adjusting for age and vascular risk factors (eg, hypertension and diabetes), a correlation of hot flashes or night sweats and WMH was shown. For every additional night sweat, there was an approximate 6% increase in the amount of WMH.

“Previous research has shown that the menopause transition is associated with a worsening of women’s cardiovascular health,” said Rebecca C. Thurston, PhD, University of Pittsburgh.  “Menopause is also increasingly recognized as an important transition for women’s brain health. Our study specifically looked at the common symptoms of menopause, hot flashes, and night sweats, and how they are related to white matter hyperintensities in the brain. These results call into question the common perception that hot flashes and night sweats are benign symptoms that don’t have much importance in women’s medical care and underscore the potential links of these symptoms to brain health. Hot flashes have the potential to serve as a midlife marker of brain health in women that may ultimately help identify women who are more likely to have poor brain health as they age.”

The study enrolled 226 women, average age 59 , who did not use hormone therapyand had a mean 5 hot flashes or night sweats per 24-hour period—about 3 hot flashes when they were awake and 2-night sweats during sleep.

Study participants were monitored for 24 hours, participants with  a device that monitors hot flashes and night sweats through skin temperature and then self-reported hot flashes and night sweats in an electronic diary for 2 days. After the 3-day period, participants had MRIs to measure WMH in 6 regions of the brain.