Women who take estrogen long after menopause appear to be at least one-third less likely than others to develop Alzheimer's disease. The Columbia University (New York) study monitored 1,124 women with an average age of 74. Those who used estrogen for more than 10 years had a 30 per cent better chance of fighting off the incurable disease than those who took it for less than a decade. Men are 10-15 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease than women and doctors believe it's because their testosterone is converted to estrogen in their later life. More studies are underway to confirm this preliminary study.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported scientists at
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center suggest that estrogen therapy taken by post-menopausal women
may significantly delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Results of the study appear in the August
17 issue of The Lancet.
"This is the latest and best epidemiological study indicating that the use of estrogen may
reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. However, a clinical trial is needed before we can determine
whether to recommend that women take estrogen to delay or prevent Alzheimer's," says Neil
Buckholtz, Ph.D., acting associate director, Neurosciences Program, NIA.
The five-year study of women age 70 and older found that among 156 women who used estrogen for two months
to 49 years, nine developed Alzheimer's; while among 968 women who never used estrogen, 158 developed
the disease over the course of the study. During each year of the study, 2.7 percent of study
participants who took estrogen developed Alzheimer's compared to 8.4 percent who did not take
estrogen.
The NIA, a component of the National Institutes of Health (US), leads the federal effort in
supporting basic, epidemiological and clinical research on Alzheimer's disease and the special
needs of older people.
