Health
Men’s brains shrink faster than women’s; researchers explore Alzheimer’s connection
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A new study may challenge what we thought we knew about brain aging.
Scientists have discovered that men’s brains shrink faster than women’s as they grow older, even though women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed more than 12,000 brain scans from nearly 5,000 healthy people between the ages of 17 and 95. Each participant had at least two MRI scans taken over time, allowing scientists to gauge how their brains changed as they aged.
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Researcher Anne Ravndal of the University of Oslo in Norway said her team wanted to test whether the higher Alzheimer’s rate in women could be linked to gender differences in the brain.
“Women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease more often than men, and since aging is the main risk factor, we wanted to test whether men’s and women’s brains change differently with age,” she told Fox News Digital.
A new study shows women’s brains don’t shrink as quickly as men’s in old age, although women still have higher rates of Alzheimer’s diagnoses. (iStock)
Men showed a faster rate of brain shrinkage across more regions than women. Areas related to memory, emotion and sensory processing — like the hippocampus and parahippocampal regions — were especially affected, the study found.
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Women’s brains, by contrast, appeared to maintain their size in more areas, though they did show slightly more enlargement in the brain’s fluid-filled spaces, known as ventricles.
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“Our findings show that men experience greater structural brain decline across more regions, meaning that normal brain aging doesn’t explain the sex difference in Alzheimer’s rates,” Ravndal said.
One hypothesis is that women get more checkups than men and are diagnosed more often with Alzheimer’s. (iStock)
Because women are still diagnosed with the disease nearly twice as often, researchers concluded that brain size changes alone can’t explain that gap.
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“The results instead point toward other possible explanations, such as differences in longevity, diagnostic patterns or biological factors,” said Ravndal.
For example, women tend to live longer, which increases the window of time during which Alzheimer’s can develop. Shifts in estrogen during menopause could also affect how brain cells age, experts say.
One potential reason for the higher rate of Alzheimer’s in women could be changes in estrogen and other hormones as they age. (iStock)
Some researchers have noted that women may simply be diagnosed more often because they’re more likely to seek medical help when memory problems appear.
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One limitation of the study is that it only looked at healthy people, not those who were already showing signs of dementia, Ravndal acknowledged. The participants were also generally well-educated and came from multiple study sites.
Ravndal emphasized that the work isn’t meant to guide individual health decisions.
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“The study is not about making direct recommendations for individuals — rather, it helps refine scientific understanding by showing that normal brain aging does not account for women’s higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
The researcher added that “future work needs to identify the mechanisms that do.”
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Eliminating sugar from your diet may seem like the key to healthy eating, but research suggests it could have unintended effects on digestive health.
A study presented at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, suggests that a total lack of sucrose, or table sugar, may harm gut health and disrupt the body’s natural metabolism.
To explore how the total absence of dietary sugar impacts the body, researchers at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait City conducted a 16-week study on two groups of mice. Both groups were placed on a low-fat diet, but with one critical difference.
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One group consumed a low-fat diet that included a standard amount of sucrose, while the other group ate a low-fat diet that was completely sugar-free, according to the study’s press release.
Throughout the trial, the scientists monitored a wide variety of physiological factors, including the animals’ weight, glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, hormone levels, internal inflammation and the specific composition of their gut bacteria.
A total lack of dietary sugar can cause imbalances in the gut bacteria and lead to signs of fatty liver disease, even without any weight gain, researchers said. (iStock)
The study outcome suggested that completely removing sugar caused several unexpected health problems.
“Completely removing sucrose from a low-fat diet may unexpectedly disrupt gut health and promote inflammation and metabolic dysfunction,” Rasheed Ahmad, principal scientist and head of the Immunology & Microbiology Department at the Dasman Diabetes Institute, said in the release.
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Even though the mice on the sugar-free diet did not gain any extra weight compared to the control group, their internal health indicators deteriorated.
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The animals that lacked sucrose developed an imbalance in their gut microbes and increased inflammation within the intestines and liver.
They also showed signs of poor glucose regulation, insulin resistance and cellular changes associated with fatty liver disease, according to the research.
Future dietary guidelines may shift away from strict, absolute sugar bans and instead focus on overall gut health through balanced nutrition. (iStock)
“The findings suggest that complete removal of sucrose from a low-fat diet may negatively affect gut microbiota and metabolic health,” Ahmad concluded.
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While the risks of high-sugar diets are well-established, the researchers noted that little attention has been given to the effects of completely eliminating sugar from low-fat meals.
Scientists say these new findings highlight that dietary carbohydrates play a valuable role in supporting balance between the immune system and the gut microbiome.
Completely cutting sucrose from a low-fat diet can unexpectedly trigger gut inflammation and disrupt the metabolism, experts say. (iStock)
Because this research was conducted on mice over a relatively short 16-week period, further clinical trials are necessary to determine whether a completely sugar-free diet causes the same gut and liver inflammation in humans.
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Additionally, the study focused specifically on removing sucrose from low-fat meals, meaning the results might not apply to people eliminating sugar while following higher-fat or ketogenic eating plans, the researchers noted.
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The team believes that future dietary guidelines may shift away from strict, absolute sugar restrictions and instead place a greater emphasis on maintaining a diverse, healthy population of gut bacteria through balanced nutrition.
“In the long term, these findings could help improve strategies for preventing and managing metabolic disorders, fatty liver disease and chronic inflammatory conditions,” Ahmad said.
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A cure for cancer could be on the horizon in the next decade, according to experts.
During the WSJ Leadership Institute CEO Summit in London last week, Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato reflected on the pharmaceutical company’s projections on the future of cancer treatment.
In the next 10 years, the goal is to “try to eliminate cancer,” Duato shared.
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“That’s a high goal, and we are already making significant progress in certain cancers,” he said.
Duato used multiple myeloma as an example, noting that the life expectancy is currently 10 years, when it was previously “only single years.”
Joaquin Duato, chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, speaks at the Punchbowl News Conference at Union Station on March 10, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
“We have treatments now that utilize your own immune system to attack the cancer,” he said at the summit. “For patients who were already going into hospice, so they didn’t have any other alternative, they are [at] more than five years, with a single administration, in remission. That [is] spectacular.”
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“When patients see that, they cannot believe that because they have been coming to the hospital every week [for] a decade, having multiple therapies.”
The goal is to “try to eliminate cancer” in the next 10 years, the pharmaceutical executive said. (iStock)
According to Duato, Johnson & Johnson is working to understand the biology of cancer growth and to formulate new technologies to address it.
“It’s realistic to believe that we are going to cure certain cancers, and some others we’re going to turn into chronic diseases,” he predicted.
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“Cancer is an important thing – I cannot think about anybody who has not been touched by cancer,” he went on. “But there are many other opportunities for us to actually advance science, to address very important social problems.”
Duato called out dementia as another “important problem” in need of a solution.
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He predicted that life expectancy, which has risen steadily over the past century, will continue to increase as longevity technologies and solutions advance, improving quality of life along the way.
Duato commented that J&J has been optimistic about the role artificial intelligence will play in the future of healthcare, calling it a “force multiplier.”
Biomarkers and AI can help with the earlier diagnosis of cancer, as well as a more advanced and personalized approach to surgery, a doctor noted. (iStock)
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel agreed with Duato’s outlook on the future of cancer care, noting that certain cancers will turn into chronic diseases while others will find outright cures.
“Advances [will be] based on the use of AI to help guide targeted treatments with expanding knowledge of cancer mutations and how to target them,” he predicted, speaking to Fox News Digital.
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Siegel added that biomarkers and AI can help with earlier diagnoses, as well as a more advanced and personalized approach to surgery.
J&J recently acquired Firefly Bio, a biotech firm that produces drugs that enter cancer cells to “target certain proteins that contain difficult to treat gene mutations,” the doctor added.
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