Rutgers Brain Health Institute

09/03/2026

🧠 Access science-backed guidance with BHI Toolkits!
Discover Rutgers Brain Health Institute Toolkits, offering evidence-based resources to support brain health, emotional resilience, and mental wellness for everyday life and challenging times. These practical guides address seasonal mood shifts, post-holiday adjustment, mental health challenges, and more using insights from cutting-edge .
🔗 Explore BHI toolkits: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/05/20/bhi-toolkits/

Part of Brain Health Insights For You (BHI For You), our public knowledge hub where Rutgers researchers break down key brain health topics for all audiences.
🔗 BHI For You: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/resources/insights/
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Explore Rutgers BHI toolkits with evidence-based resources for brain health, resilience, stress, mindful drinking, and more.

09/02/2026

The recent FDA clearance of Roche and Eli Lilly’s Elecsys pTau217 blood test for diagnosis is the latest chapter in a remarkably swift transformation of how Alzheimer’s disease is detected.

The arrival of four FDA‑cleared blood tests in just fifteen months signals a new era of accessibility. A simple blood draw can now provide meaningful information about the biological changes associated with Alzheimer’s.

Yet these advances come with important caveats: no test is meant for standalone diagnosis, and results must always be interpreted alongside a full clinical evaluation. Alongside these diagnostic advances, prevention remains critical, including exercise, diet, social engagement, and careful management of vascular and metabolic risk factors.

🔗 Read more: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/09/01/fda-clears-fourth-new-blood-test-to-diagnose-alzheimers/

09/02/2026

Regular aerobic exercise – the kind that gets your heart pumping – can improve important thinking skills called executive functions, and the benefits appear especially strong for women after menopause.

BHI has translated study findings led by Dr. Sharon Sanz Simon into clear, actionable steps in a practical aerobic exercise toolkit.

🔗 Read the full toolkit: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/10/stay-sharp-after-menopause-a-practical-toolkit-for-boosting-your-brains-executive-functions-with-aerobic-exercise/
🔗 Rutgers Today Article: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/stay-sharp-after-menopause-how-aerobic-exercise-can-improve-key-thinking-skills
🔗 Explore more women's brain health research at the Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-brain-health-institute-launches-rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative

Regular aerobic exercise – the kind that gets your heart pumping – can improve important thinking skills called executive functions, and the benefits appear especially strong for women after menopause, according to Rutgers researchers.

08/31/2026

📩 Check out the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) August Monthly Newsletter. Stay up-to-date with our latest faculty achievements, upcoming events, activities, opportunities, and more.
🔗 https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Rutgers-Brain-Health-Institute--BHI--Monthly-Newsletter---August-2026.html?soid=1140446653813&aid=_KwQubx_jzk
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08/28/2026

is one of the main hormones shaping a woman's health, and its level rises and falls in distinct patterns across life.

Expand your understanding of estrogen's changing levels across female life stages and its links to health conditions with our illustrated factsheet — where it comes from, what it does, how it changes across life, and the disorders it drives.

📥 Download the Estrogen Factsheet:https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/R-BHI_Estrogen_Infosheet.pdf
🔎 Check out the interactive dynamic estrogen graph tracking fluctuating hormone levels across women’s full lifespan and explore more women’s brain health research at Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/04/menopause-a-key-transition-in-womens-brain-health-a-new-series-from-the-rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative/

08/27/2026

How the trillions of microbes in your gut shape your immune system and metabolism, and what they mean for your long-term ? 🧠

In Norah O'Donnell's new Healthful podcast, Dr. Laura Cox, assistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, explains how the gut microbiome supports our health by making vitamins, educating our immune system, and protecting us from pathogens. It can affect our brains by changing our immune systems and our metabolism, and may be linked to like and .

🔗 Norah O'Donnell's podcast: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gut-microbiome-impact-brain-health-dr-laura-cox-healthful/

CBS News Rutgers University

Dr. Laura Cox, an assistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, explains how our dietary patterns play a significant role in our gut and long-term brain health.

08/19/2026

A second pregnancy changes women's brains in the same way as a first pregnancy, but in a different way than the first time, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

The study showed that the brain adapts during both the first and second pregnancy, with each pregnancy leaving a unique mark on the female brain. The first pregnancy saw the biggest changes in the Default Mode Network, while the second brought more changes in networks related to paying attention and responding to stimuli, with links observed between structural brain changes and peripartum depression.

🔗 Nature Communications: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69370-8
🔗 Read the article: https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/institutes/amsterdam-neuroscience/news/changes-in-the-brain-of-women-during-a-second-pregnancy
🔎 Explore more women’s brain health research at Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative/

Extending their previous findings of brain changes in a first pregnancy, the authors show that a second pregnancy uniquely alters women’s brains, involving both a further fine-tuning of first-pregnancy effects and distinct changes in other networks.

08/18/2026

Norah O’Donnell’s new Healthful podcast: she sat down with her doctor, Dr. Rachel Rubin, to tackle .

“Menopause is a castration event, whether we like it or not,” Dr. Rubin says. “Your ovaries no longer make estrogen, progesterone or testosterone. You have hormone receptors throughout your entire body,” with common symptoms including hot flashes, poor sleep, mood changes, weight gain, and memory issues. While some men see a natural decline of testosterone as they age, they “don’t really get to ‘castrate’ levels.”

🔎 Check out the interactive dynamic estrogen graph tracking fluctuating hormone levels across women’s full lifespan and explore more women’s brain health research at Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/04/menopause-a-key-transition-in-womens-brain-health-a-new-series-from-the-rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative/
🔗 Norah O’Donnell's podcast: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/menopause-norah-odonnell-dr-rachel-rubin-healthful/

Norah O'Donnell sat down with her own doctor, Rachel Rubin, to tackle the important topic of menopause: How your body changes, why women may be needlessly suffering, and what you can actually do about it.

08/18/2026

🧠 A new study published in Neurology finds women who received estrogen-only hormone therapy at had lower odds of Alzheimer’s brain hallmarks seen on autopsy. The research draws clearer objective results from brain tissue analysis, helping unpack why past hormone therapy studies delivered conflicting conclusions around dementia risk.

These findings show that menopause and shifting estrogen levels are important factors shaping women’s risk, and create momentum to revisit how hormone health may factor into Alzheimer’s prevention strategies for women.

🔗 Neurology: https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000218413
🔗 Read the TIME article coverage: https://time.com/article/2026/08/13/estrogen-therapy-may-protect-against-alzheimers-disease/
🔎 Explore more women’s brain health research at Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative and check out the interactive dynamic estrogen graph tracking fluctuating hormone levels across women’s full lifespan:
https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/04/menopause-a-key-transition-in-womens-brain-health-a-new-series-from-the-rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative/

Background and ObjectivesAlthough evidence suggests that the neurophysiologic impact of estrogen decline during menopause may contribute to increased risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) in women, the effect of menopausal hormonal therapy (MHT) on AD risk ...

08/14/2026

💡Stay Sharp After : A Practical Toolkit for Boosting Your Brain's Executive Functions with

Regular aerobic exercise can improve important thinking skills called executive functions — and the benefits appear especially strong for women after menopause. Executive functions help you plan, switch between tasks, stay focused, and maintain independence. The good news: a structured aerobic exercise program may help protect and even improve them.

Post-menopausal women who did aerobic exercise showed greater improvement in executive functions than women in the stretching-and-toning group. Benefits were already visible at 3 months and continued at 6 months.

🔗 This toolkit turns recent research findings by Dr. Sharon Sanz Simon into clear, usable steps you can take: https://brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/10/stay-sharp-after-menopause-a-practical-toolkit-for-boosting-your-brains-executive-functions-with-aerobic-exercise/

🔗 Explore more women's brain health research at the Rutgers Women's Brain Health Initiative: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-brain-health-institute-launches-rutgers-womens-brain-health-initiative

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