Hormone Therapy May Be An Effective Preventive Treatment For Alzheimer's In Women

Data shows that the rates of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are higher in women than men, and while that's partially due to women living longer—there's more to it than just that. Previous research has suggested that there may be a menopause–Alzheimer's connection to blame for the higher cases in women, but there have not been many studies that investigate how to manage that risk.

While the suggestion of hormone replacement for managing Alzheimer's in women was a main part of the study, the researchers also presented a wider variety of possible risk factors in assessing women's Alzheimer's risk.

These factors include age, reproductive stage, hormone levels, and the interplay with other risk factors—which is in line with findings from previous studies.

In the animal trial, researchers found that estrogen replacement reversed the pathologizing of tau, the nerve cells that are affected in AD, through antioxidant activity. According to co-lead investigator Massimo Tabaton, M.D., from the Unit of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Genova in Italy, the "results suggest that an early postmenopausal estrogen replacement may be protective against AD."

While these results all suggest that estrogen may be key to helping manage Alzheimer's risk in women, further studies are necessary to see if the findings hold true in human subjects.