Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women in their 40s Could Prevent Alzheimer’s

Women make up the majority of Alzheimer’s cases. While scientists don’t fully understand all of the mechanisms behind women’s increased risk factor, researchers have found one treatment to help curb the onset of Alzheimer’s: hormone replacement therapy.

Women’s Hormones and Alzheimer’s

Preclinical studies have found a potential culprit behind women’s increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD): a unique neuroendocrine transition that only happens in women during the transition from perimenopause to menopause.

In the study, scientists compared the brain bioenergetics of nearly fifty women aged 40-60 for a range of endocrine transition stages. They found that abnormalities were lowest in the control group, intermediate in the perimenopausal group, and most pronounced in the menopausal group.

This indicates that these bioenergetic deficits coincide with women’s endocrine aging process, and this is also the optimal window for medical intervention. As a result, practitioners are starting prevention methods earlier, starting around 40 or 50 years old.

“Estrogen is a protective hormone that actually goes inside a woman’s brain, stimulating growth, health and plasticity, and keeping it expanding rather than shrinking as a woman ages,” and any natural drop in estrogen means a corresponding loss in this critical protection, according to the researcher behind the study and the associate director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic, Lisa Mosconi. 

Mosconi’s studies revealed that women who had not entered menopause had higher brain metabolism than the women in perimenopause and menopause. Worse, the women in perimenopause and menopause also showed signs of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s. Comparatively, none of the men in studied had any changes.Preventing Alzheimer’s

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy 

Bio-identical Hormones are safe and effective, made to have the same molecular structure as hormones made by your body. We use these to treat women for symptoms of perimenopause, menopause, and thyroid disorder such as hot flashes, night sweats, memory loss, and mood swings which can begin as early as age 30. We also treat women struggling with hormone imbalances with symptoms including weight gain, fatigue, low libido, and anxiety. Hormone therapy is tailored to each patient.

Diet & Exercise

In addition to introducing hormone replacement therapy at around age 40, researchers also suggest diet changes and exercise: 3 hours of rigorous exercise each week can not only increase blood flow to the brain but also loosen up amyloid plaque. Whenever we treat a patient with hormone therapy, our physicians also include fitness and nutrition changes as well as supplement recommendations.

If you have any of the following symptoms, contact us to learn how we can help: