Alzheimer’s Dementia: Peri-menopausal Estrogen Is a Preventative Strategy for Women

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) predominantly affects women, and it has no cure when it becomes established. As the current biggest killer of women in the United Kingdom, it became incumbent to explore all preventive strategies. Based on the knowledge that Alzheimer's dementia is homed in the hippocampus and that this area is suffused with estrogen receptors, we explored whether there was a link that might suggest therapeutic or preventive strategies. We found that there was evidence that the hippocampus, the primary area of the brain that we used for declarative memory became deplete with estrogen receptors in the menopause. We also found other pointers which included that hippocampal pathology is central to the development of AD and that the hippocampal shape and volume can predict the onset of AD. There were further of in-vitro and in-vivo support that peri-menopausal estrogens could reduce the incidence of AD in women by up to 35%.