In this episode of the MGC podcast, I talk to Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, a Professor of Neurology at UCLA where she currently holds the Jack H. Skirball Chair.

Dr. Voskuhl is the Director of the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Program, and is the faculty neurologist for the UCLA Comprehensive Menopause Care Program. She is an internationally recognized expert on women’s health and the role of female sex hormones in cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders.

With over 20 years of numerous grants and continuous funding from the NIH and NMSS, her lab discovered a novel estrogen treatment strategy that can be neuroprotective through actions on estrogen receptor beta (ER) in the central nervous system.

Dr. Voskuhl has been the Principle Investigator on three clinical trials showing neuroprotective effects of estriol treatment on cognition and cortical brain atrophy underscoring the translational nature of her research.

In this podcast, I talk to her about the following topics:

• The role of estrogen on specific receptors in the brain and its implications for the development of neurodegenerative disorders

• Why women are more likely to develop early cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease

• Why the earlier clinical trials with estrogen receptor replacement failed

• What women can do to slow cognitive decline after menopause