Not Smaller Men: What Women Need to Know About Their Own Health

For most of modern medical history, the default human body in research was male. Women were excluded from clinical trials well into the 1990s  their hormonal cycles considered a complicating variable, their physiology assumed to be roughly equivalent to men's, just smaller. The consequences of that assumption are still being corrected. We are still filling in the gaps. 

One of the most significant gaps is brain health. But the picture that is emerging  from population research, from exercise physiology, and from our own data here at IE: is not only a story about risk. It is a story about what becomes possible when women finally have accurate information about their own bodies. 

Two-Thirds of Alzheimer's Cases Are Women 

This is not a statistic that gets enough attention. Nearly two-thirds of all Alzheimer's cases occur in women, and a woman's lifetime risk of developing the disease is 1 in 5, compared to 1 in 10 for men (Mosconi et al., 2023; Zárate et al., 2023). And the disparity doesn't stop there. Research published in Neurology found that women tend to be diagnosed later, because standard memory tests rely heavily on verbal skills: an area where women naturally perform better, even in the early stages of cognitive decline. Their verbal ability effectively masks the disease's progression, meaning that by the time symptoms become clinically visible, the pathology is often further advanced than it would be in a man at the same stage (Sundermann et al., 2016; Tudorascu et al., 2025). 

Part of the explanation lies in estrogen. A growing body of research confirms that estrogen is neuroprotective, it plays a critical role in brain metabolism, synaptic plasticity, mitochondrial function, and the brain's ability to clear inflammatory waste (Zárate et al., 2023). When estrogen levels drop, as they do during perimenopause and menopause, glucose metabolism in the brain decreases, inflammation can increase, and the brain becomes more vulnerable to the kind of protein buildup associated with neurodegeneration. This is why the menopause transition is increasingly recognized as one of the most important windows for brain health intervention,  and why the earlier women understand what is happening in their bodies, the better positioned they are to act on it. 

Then there is the stress dimension. Women are more prone to chronic, low-grade inflammation partly because their immune systems respond more robustly than men's. Over time, sustained cortisol (the stress hormone) directly impacts the hippocampus, the brain region most responsible for memory and learning. Add to this what researchers call the "invisible burden", or the mental load of managing work, relationships, logistics, and emotional labor, much of it unacknowledged and the physiological toll becomes tangible. This is not a soft conversation about balance. It is a hard conversation about biology. 

We see this reflected in our own community. Our research at the Segovia campus found that women rated working in teams as significantly more stressful than men did,  not because collaboration is harder for women, but because the conditions under which it happens often distribute invisible labor unevenly. Coordination, emotional smoothing, conflict resolution: these tasks tend to fall to women, and they tend to go unrecognized. That is a structural stressor with a real physiological cost. 

So What Actually Helps? 

The good news is that the interventions that matter most are within reach. Not optimization hacks or 5am routines, actual, evidence-based habits that accumulate over time. 

Move with intention. 

A 2025 systematic review confirmed that high-intensity interval training significantly increases levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that supports neuronal resilience and activity-dependent plasticity vital for learning and memory (Carbonell-Hernández et al., 2025). Strength training is equally important;  research shows it improves executive function and attentional control in older adults, with studies suggesting greater cognitive benefits in women specifically (Fernández-Gámez et al., 2026). The goal isn't aesthetics. It's building a body and brain that stay strong for decades.

Our data across both IE campuses confirms that students who engage regularly in physical activity report stronger overall well-being outcomes. And while men currently show slightly higher rates of sports participation, women show stronger engagement in contemplative practices like mindfulness and journaling, both of which carry their own evidence base for stress regulation and emotional resilience (IE Center for Health & Well-Being, 2025). 

Fuel appropriately.

The brain is a high-demand organ. It needs consistent glucose, amino acids, and micronutrients to function well. Chronic under-fueling (something women are particularly prone to in high-performance environments)  doesn't just affect energy. It affects cognition, mood, and hormonal balance. Research from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study found that erythrocyte omega-3 fatty acid levels are inversely associated with incident dementia, while a 2023 study found that higher omega-3 levels correlate with better memory, processing speed, and structural brain measures in older adults (Ammann et al., 2017; Tsiknia et al., 2023). A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis also found that creatine supplementation, often thought of purely as a sports supplement, supports cognitive function in adults, particularly in memory and information processing speed, with potential sex-specific benefits for women (Avgerinos et al., 2024). 

Protect your sleep.

Deep sleep is when the brain performs its most critical maintenance. Research published in Nature Communications confirmed that the brain's glymphatic system, a network responsible for clearing metabolic waste, enhances the overnight clearance of Alzheimer's biomarkers, including amyloid-beta and tau proteins, during sleep (Piantino et al., 2026). Poor sleep is not just fatigue. It is a brain health risk factor with documented consequences for long-term cognitive function. Treating it as such changes how seriously we protect it. 

Manage stress as infrastructure, not afterthought.

Stress is inevitable. What varies is whether we build consistent practices to downregulate the nervous system — breathwork, movement, recovery time, protecting boundaries. These are not optional extras. They are the foundation everything else sits on. Our Segovia data found that women were significantly more likely than men to reach out to a friend or family member when stressed — 81% compared to 60% of men (IE Center for Health & Well-Being, 2025). That instinct is worth honoring and building on, but it also points to the value of diversifying the toolkit: movement, structured recovery, and emotional regulation practices all work alongside social connection, not instead of it. 

Know your hormonal landscape.

Understanding how your cycle affects your energy, cognition, mood, and recovery is not niche self-knowledge. It is practical intelligence. Research highlights that omega-3 fatty acids may be particularly relevant during the menopausal transition, a period characterized by brain fog, cognitive changes, and increased dementia risk (Calder & Lavery, 2025). If you have a family history of cognitive disease, be especially proactive. The window for intervention is earlier than most people realize. 

What Our Own Data Shows 

Our data adds another layer to this picture; one that goes beyond the physiological and into the psychological and structural. 

Across our 2024–2025 IE University Student Well-Being Report, covering 5,739 students at IE, women reported stronger engagement in contemplative and reflective practices. But a particularly striking finding emerged in the performance data: for female master's students specifically, academic self-efficacy and grit were meaningful predictors of GPA;  while for men, these same variables showed no significant relationship with grades. Women need to believe in themselves more concretely for that belief to translate into results (IE Center for Health & Well-Being, 2025). That asymmetry says something important about the structural barriers women still navigate, and about how much more self-belief has to carry for them in academic and professional environments. 

Our more focused Segovia Women's Report reinforced this further. Women's life satisfaction was more closely tied to resilience and mindfulness than men's, to the capacity to sit with difficulty without being overwhelmed by it, and to recover without losing ground. These are not personality traits. They are skills. And unlike the knowledge gap that has shaped women's healthcare for decades, this is one that can be actively closed, through the right information, the right environment, and the deliberate practice of building the internal architecture that allows women not just to cope, but to thrive. 

The Long Game 

The habits you build now, how you train, how you fuel, how you sleep, how you manage stress, how you understand your own biology, are shaping your brain and body for decades to come. This is not about perfection or radical reinvention. It is about starting from an accurate picture of how your physiology actually works, and making choices that compound in your favor over time. 

Stacy Sims, one of the leading researchers in women's exercise physiology, puts it plainly: we have spent too long applying male data to female bodies, and the cost has been borne quietly by women who were told the resulting gap was normal. It isn't. Women who train with their biology in mind, who fuel for their hormonal reality, who understand the inflection points in their own health across a lifetime, they don't just feel better. They perform better, think more clearly, and age more powerfully. 

That is what this conversation is really about. Not managing decline. Not compensating for disadvantage. But understanding, perhaps for the first time, what your body is actually capable of when it is properly understood and properly supported.  

At the IE Center for Health & Well-Being, this is the conversation we want to be part of, which is why we have developed A Women's Journey to Vitality & Authenticity. The program moves through the interconnected terrain of hormones, sleep, nutrition, unconscious bias, authentic leadership, and psychological safety, each session led by a different expert, all of it built on one conviction: that understanding yourself is not a luxury. It is the most practical thing you can do.

References 

Ammann, E. M., Pottala, J. V., Robinson, J. G., Espeland, M. A., & Harris, W. S. (2017). Erythrocyte omega-3 fatty acids are inversely associated with incident dementia: Secondary analyses of longitudinal data from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 121, 68–75. 

Avgerinos, K. I., Spyrou, N., Bougioukas, K. I., & Kapogiannis, D. (2024). The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition, 11, 1424972. 

Calder, P. C., & Lavery, G. (2025). Omega-3 fatty acids, brain health and the menopause. PMC, NCBI. 

Carbonell-Hernández, L., et al. (2025). The effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels (BDNF): A systematic review. Brain Sciences, 15(1), 34. 

Fernández-Gámez, B., et al. (2026). Effect of a 24-week resistance exercise intervention on cognitive function in cognitively normal older adults: The AGUEDA randomized controlled trial. Alzheimer's & Dementia. 

IE Center for Health & Well-Being. (2025). 2024–2025 IE University Student Well-Being Report. IE University. 

IE Center for Health & Well-Being. (2025). Informe sobre el bienestar de las estudiantes de IE University en la sede de Segovia 2024–2025. IE University. 

Mosconi, L., et al. (2023). Study suggests estrogen to prevent Alzheimer's warrants renewed research interest. Weill Cornell Medicine. 

Piantino, J., et al. (2026). The glymphatic system clears amyloid beta and tau from brain to plasma in humans. Nature Communications. 

Sims, S. T. (2025). Protect your brain for the long game. Stacy T. Sims Newsletter. 

Sundermann, E. E., et al. (2016). Better verbal memory in women than men in MCI despite similar levels of hippocampal atrophy. Neurology, 86(15), 1368–1376. 

Tsiknia, A. A., et al. (2023). Omega-3 fatty acids, cognition, and brain volume in older adults. Brain Sciences, 13(9), 1278. 

Tudorascu, D. L., et al. (2025). Sex-specific trajectories of verbal memory decline suggest masking of Alzheimer's disease symptoms in females. medRxiv. 

Zárate, S., et al. (2023). Sex and gender driven modifiers of Alzheimer's: The role for estrogenic control across age, race, medical, and lifestyle risks. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.