London – It’s what women have always suspected – men really do have worse memories than the opposite sex.
Although declining brain power is common to everyone, it affects men much earlier in life – most notably from their 40s, scientists claim.
It is thought that the female hormone oestrogen may help women stave off nerve cell damage in their brains until they reach later mid-life.
US researchers also said memory loss is a natural part of ageing – and does not necessarily indicate the first signs of Alzheimer’s.
In a study of 1,246 people between the ages of 30 and 95, experts at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation in Minnesota found that overall, memory loss declined steadily with age.
The area of the brain that deals with the function – the hippocampus – shrinks steadily and slowly from the age of 30 through to our mid-60s. It then falls more dramatically after that with advancing age, says a report in JAMA Neurology.
But researchers found memory loss worse in men, especially after 40. The size of their hippocampus was also smaller than in women, especially after 60.
Dr Clifford Jack said the findings proved declining memory was common to both sexes and did not always mean a sign of illness. ‘It’s an unpleasant feature of normal ageing, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting dementia,’ he said.
Daily Mail