Alzheimer's risk may be 35% lower with common menopause treatment, study finds - Fox News

A Stanford study published August 12 in the journal Neurology found that women who used estrogen-only menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) had a 35% lower likelihood of Alzheimer's-related brain changes and 39% lower odds of developing dementia over their lifetimes.
Researchers analyzed post-mortem data from 21,462 participants, comparing 258 women who reported estrogen-only MHT use with roughly 2,701 women who reported no MHT use, examining brains for amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Estrogen-only users, most of whom had likely undergone hysterectomies, showed fewer of the hallmark Alzheimer's plaques and tangles, and living participants performed better on memory tests and maintained greater independence, with blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers supporting the findings.
Because study participants averaged 70 years of age and generally began therapy later in life, the researchers suggested the results may understate potential benefits, noting recent evidence that MHT may work best when started during or shortly after menopause.
The findings appear to contradict earlier studies that linked menopausal hormone therapy to an increased risk of dementia, adding nuance to an ongoing scientific debate.
Co-author Jennifer Bruno, PhD, of Stanford's psychiatry and behavioral sciences department, pointed to estrogen's documented neuroprotective effects, explaining that it helps shift amyloid toward a non-amyloidogenic pathway and promotes tau dephosphorylation, processes tied to Alzheimer's development. Alzheimer's remains the leading cause of dementia among older adults, with women accounting for about two-thirds of diagnoses.