Fwd: [Lupus_etc] Hormone therapy appears to raise Alzheimer's risk in postmenopausal women

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Bre <bk_dizzy2 wrote:

Lupus_etc From: "Bre" Mon, 28 Jun 2004 07:18:42 -0000[Lupus_etc] Hormone therapy appears to raise Alzheimer's risk in postmenopausal womenWednesday, June 23, 2004Estrogen pills may hurt memoryHormone therapy appears to raise Alzheimer's risk in postmenopausal womenBy Eric D. Tytell / Los Angeles TimesEstrogen therapy does not protect women age 65 and older againstAlzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, as scientists oncehoped — and may in fact slightly hasten senility, according to thelatest results of a women's health study.These results, reported today in the Journal of the American MedicalAssociation, may end scientists' hopes for estrogen replacementtherapy in older women. The treatment was thought to be a panacea thatreduced many

of the ravages of age, such as strokes and dementia, butit instead seems to enhance those problems.The results mirror those reported last year from a study of the morewidely used combination of estrogen and progestin. For the new report,researchers studied 2,947 women, ages 65 to 79, for eight years. Halfwere taking estrogen.The team found that 28 of those women developed dementia, comparedwith only 19 of those who were not taking the hormone — a 49 percentincrease. The researchers found that trend troubling, but noted thatthe numbers were too small to be statistically significant.Dementia is an uncommon condition, so the overall risk for thecondition is still low, even though the risk is higher for women onhormones. Stephen R. Rapp, a project investigator from Wake ForestUniversity, said that, extrapolating from the study, estrogen mightcause 12 new cases of dementia per 10,000 women each year.Despite the

findings of the research, called the Women's HealthInitiative Memory Study, hormone replacement therapy is safe fortreating menopausal symptoms like hot flashes in younger women, butthe drugs should be taken in low doses for the shortest time possible,Rapp said.Some doctors think that the drug confers a protective effect inyounger women if the therapy is started during menopause, before anyage-related brain damage."Estrogen is not a repairer of function; it's a preserver offunction," said Dr. Alan M. Altman, a gynecologist at Brigham andWomen's Hospital in Boston.Most estrogen replacement therapy prescriptions are for women ages 47through 55 to relieve the symptoms of menopause. But at the beginningof the Women's Health Initiative, scientists thought that estrogenmight also help older women stay sharp as they aged.This theory appears completely debunked."I can't see a case for an older woman being on

it, and neither canthe FDA," Rapp said. Hope springs eternal!I will keep you in prayer.