Bridges between dendritic spines in the brain makes neurons talk to each other better and makes you smarter. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia have fewer of these bridges.
A recent study showed that estrogen can make more of these bridges allowing more cross-talk. By switching an estrogen receptor 'switch', scientists were able to demonstrate that the communication between cells can be enhanced.
While this could be a breakthrough in the ways we treat Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia, there is also a mounting case against long term estrogen therapy.
Menopausal women are routinely prescribed with long term estrogen therapy and now it is linked with increased heart failures and cancer incidence.
The real question is, are women smarter than men? I know we have heard this question too often, but are they really? Does this explain college grades? Dropout rates? Duh!
We know women have higher estrogen than men. If you dig deep into woman's brain [no man has ever done that :( they say...] you might find more bridges between dendritic spines. So is this the reason why women are more sensible? Question's up in the air, get ready for the war of words...
