Neurological conditions are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, affecting more than one in three people.1 According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the burden of disability and premature death attributed to these conditions has increased by 18% since 1990. Despite this growing impact, important aspects of brain health, particularly emotional coping and sex‑specific biological influences, remain under recognised in everyday clinical practice.
Women face distinct neurological and psychological demands across the lifespan, influenced by hormonal transitions, chronic stress, caregiving roles, trauma, and social determinants of health. These factors play a central role in shaping emotional coping capacity and have meaningful consequences for brain function, mood, cognition, and overall wellbeing, especially during periods of ageing and hormonal change. During midlife and perimenopause, symptoms such as depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and “brain fog” may represent early warning signs of declining brain health rather than isolated psychological concerns, providing an important opportunity for preventative intervention.
In this webinar, Dr. Adrian Lopresti will examine core indicators of brain health with a focus on emotional regulation, stress resilience, and psychological adaptation. He will outline practical approaches to assessment, including symptom‑based questionnaires, clinician administered tools, and relevant physiological measures that can be applied in clinical practice.
Dr. Lopresti will also review current evidence on key drivers of brain function in women, spanning lifestyle, dietary, environmental, psychological, and medical factors. Emphasis will be placed on how these influences interact with female neurobiology and hormonal dynamics to contribute to processes such as neuroinflammation, reduced brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activity, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and hormonal imbalance. Together, these mechanisms help explain the close overlap between mood disorders and cognitive change, and why later onset affective symptoms may act as prodromal indicators of neurodegenerative risk.
The webinar will conclude with an overview of integrative treatment strategies to support emotional resilience and neurological health in women. This will include evidence based nutritional and botanical interventions aimed at modulating stress physiology, enhancing intrinsic cellular resilience pathways, and optimising brain health across the lifespan.
Learning objectives :
- Recognise common midlife symptoms in women, including depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and cognitive complaints as potential early indicators of compromised brain health.
- Describe how emotional coping capacity in women is influenced by hormonal transitions, chronic stress, and psychosocial factors across the lifespan.
- Apply appropriate clinical assessment tools to evaluate brain health and emotional regulation in women, including symptom-based questionnaires, clinician administered measures, and relevant physiological markers.
- Explain key pathophysiological mechanisms linking mood and cognition, including neuroinflammation, altered neurotrophic signalling (e.g. BDNF), oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and hormonal imbalance.
- Integrate evidence informed nutritional, botanical, lifestyle, and psychosocial strategies to support emotional resilience, neuroplasticity, and long-term brain health in midlife women.
Join Dr. Adrian Lopresti for the webinar 'Is Brain Health Being Missed? Understanding Emotional Coping in Women.'
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