Medical ALERT: Hysterectomy triggers bad effect on brain function, according to NEW research
(NaturalHealth365) According to estimates, a third of all women receive a hysterectomy (the surgical removal of the uterus) by the time they’re sixty years old. Amazingly, researchers estimate that as many as 20% of these surgeries aren’t even medically necessary.
Let’s put aside for a moment how disturbing it is that so many doctors are willing to put patients under the knife when it’s not warranted. Instead, let’s consider some startling new research out of Arizona State University: the 600,000+ hysterectomies performed every year in this country could be contributing to the high prevalence of memory loss.
WARNING: Unexpected outcome triggered by a hysterectomy
A team of researchers from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology discovered that when female rats had their uteruses surgically removed, they developed significant impairments with their memory. Spatial memory (the ability navigate around one’s environment) was particularly hindered, especially in stressful situations or other moments when their memory would be taxed.
The researchers’ data was just published in the December 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Epidemiology and will (most likely) cause many women to think twice about getting a hysterectomy.
Interestingly, the research team only saw this memory impairment in rats who had had just their uteruses removed, but had their ovaries left intact. Female rats who had had surgical removal of their uterus and ovaries did not exhibit these types of spatial memory deficits.
This points to the possibility that the uterus isn’t just a “dormant” or “useless” organ when it’s not being used to house a growing fetus—quite the contrary. The research indicates that even in non-pregnant women the uterus plays an essential role in brain function.
The authors conclude: “[Our] findings demonstrate that the nonpregnant uterus is not dormant, and indicate that there is an ovarian-uterus-brain system that becomes interrupted when the reproductive tract has been disrupted, leading to alterations in brain functioning.”
Woman’s uterus plays a much more versatile role in health than previously thought, but Western medicine appears to think otherwise
There’s no other gynecological procedure performed more often than a total or partial hysterectomy.
Well over a half a million of them are performed every year in the United States. At the same time, nearly 6 million Americans (and 50 million people worldwide) are living with some form of dementia.
Clearly, hysterectomies can’t be the only explanation for the significant prevalence of memory loss in our country. But many researchers believe it’s an important and as yet under-examined part of the puzzle.
And the researchers of the above hysterectomy study rightly point out that more research needs to be done on the influence of the uterus on a woman’s overall health and well-being…hopefully so that it can stop being needlessly removed in such an invasive procedure.
Sources for this article include:
Academic.oup.com
UofMhealth.org
Researchgate.net
Sciencedaily.com
BrighamandWomens.org
ASHA.org
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