Doctor Q&A: What are the best and worst cooking oils for memory? Dr Renee Hoenderkamp answers your questions

Hey doc, I get really bad ulcers quite frequently. What's causing this? I watch my sugar intake but it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. Would welcome your input. Thank you

Oh, I feel your pain, literally and figuratively! It seems some people are more prone to mouth ulcers than others and we just don’t know why or the actual cause.

Causes can include:

• Injury: From a bite, damaged tooth, braces
• Stress
• Hormonal changes: Swings of hormones in puberty, pregnancy, and menopause can cause mouth ulcers and for some women this can mean monthly mouth ulcers at a certain time of her cycle.
• Medications: Beta-blockers and NSAIDs, amongst others, can cause mouth ulcers.
• Vitamin deficiency: Low levels of vitamin B12, B9, zinc and iron have been implicated.
• Viral infections: any viral infection/upper respiratory tract infection can cause ulcers.
• Smoking or chewing tobacco: Chronic irritation from these habits can cause mouth ulcers and, ultimately, mouth cancer.

Most mouth ulcers are harmless and will get better naturally within 10-14 days but if you get them recurrently, can be debilitating.

So go through the list above and see if there is anything you can modify to try and stop them from coming in the first place.

If they keep coming and you have checked your vitamin levels and they are fine, there are things you can do to try and speed up healing and relieve pain. You should:

• Avoid foods which irritate; spicy or salty food, acidic/citrus foods, sauces like soy and very hot food
• Eat softer foods so as not to scratch the ulcer surface
• Rinse as often as needed with salt water
• Make sure you have a healthy balanced diet
• Reduced stress
• Get a dentist check-up
• Using numbing gels, over-the-counter or prescription gels, ointments, and rinses such as Anbesol, Bonjela, antiseptic mouthwashes

If all else fails you could ask your GP to prescribe a dissolvable steroid such as Bethametasone and use it to gargle over the ulcer and then spit it out.

There are also some great suggestions here for natural remedies and you might find one that works for you!

Good luck.

Hi doctor, I am hoping you can help out an exasperated middle-aged woman. I'm 62 and really struggle to lose weight. I eat next no nothing yet seem to be gaining. I assume it's to do with the menopause. If that's true, what can be done about it? I am desperate for some advice, thank you

Weight gain is sadly a common side effect of menopause that affects at least half of women and involves laying down fat around the midriff, due to a change in cortisol levels and the way that the body handles glucose and fat. The SWAN study and The Healthy Women’s study demonstrated that women gain approximately 1.5kg per year during perimenopause, resulting in an average weight gain of 10kg by the time menopause is reached on average. A woman needs approximately 300 fewer calories for starters after menopause, but this isn’t enough on its own, and it is often caused by a combination of hormonal changes, ageing, lifestyle factors, and genetics.

The answer is often a complete lifestyle change and analysis of nutrition in terms of what and how much is being eaten. Most people don’t eat as healthily as they think and eat more than they estimate. Changing your diet to include high protein, no more than a quarter of a meal being carbohydrate and half being made up of fruit and veg will help cut down on salt and sugar and make you stay fuller longer. Not eating packaged meals is essential for all-round health. Changing diet in this way will boost the intake of necessary minerals and vitamins and will benefit both bone and heart health, which suffer after menopause.

Moving more is also crucial for heart and bone health and helping keep weight under control. Start slowly; you don’t need to go to the gym. Walking fast enough to make you slightly out of breath is key to heart health, and just walking increases longevity the more steps you do a day, the bigger the benefit. So don’t stand on an escalator and never take the lift! Do some weight-bearing exercise for bone health.

So, what is my message? Don’t diet, re-analyse what you are eating, cut out dairy for a week, and redesign it all. It will take three months for your brain to accept it, enjoy it and not feel the pain, but there is no downside.

However, please don’t think that I believe it is as easy as it was for me to write this. I don’t. So, I would suggest listening to this from Dr Louise Newson who explains what is going on and makes some suggestions. I hope that it helps.

Hey doc, what's the best and worst type of cooking oil got for memory retention? I read somewhere that rapeseed oil can harm your brain. Thank you

I would need a week to answer this fully, but in a nutshell, many feel that processed seed oils like rapeseed (canola), contain high levels of omega 6 which can be damaging to the brain and heart and there are studies saying this (although there are also others saying its good). Others claim that seed oils contain high levels of toxic compounds called aldehydes which emerge when heated for cooking. Aldehydes have been shown to cause oxidative stress which can damage cells, including brain cells. There is a recent study showing canola oil worsening cognition in mice. Seed oils are highly processed, and, as a rule, I would stay away from processed foods. Below is one study looking at this very topic that found a detrimental effect on cognition.

So, let’s assume there are better oils to cook with that have benefits for cognition. The clearest example is extra virgin olive oil and this is what I use to cook. Olive oil is Resistant to heat and doesn't oxidize during cooking. It is anti-inflammatory and important for heart health. A 2022 study found that consuming more than 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of olive oil daily reduced the risk of dying early from any cause by 19 per cent. In fact, there are lots of studies to show that olive oil consumed daily improves cognition and I have listed one such study here.

My message is to stick to olive oil for cooking and salads and avoid highly processed forms of food of all types, including seed oils. In so doing, you are giving your brain the best nutrition you can.