Hormone therapy may prevent Alzheimer's

A recent study shows that starting hormone therapy before the age of 65 may actually decrease the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. This conflicts previous findings that after the age of 65, hormone therapy actually increases the risk of Alzheimer's. It was previously found that decreased levels of estrogen in the brain of women could actually increase the chances of getting Alzheimer's, thus the inspiration for the previous study regarding HRT (hormone replacement therapy). The current study is based purely on observations of women who started HRT before the age of 65, and is less reliable than clinical studies. It was found that women that started estrogen replacement before the age of 65 were 50% less likely to develop Alzheimer's. The biological explanation is based off of preventing the brain from ever "seeing" menopause. In women that start the HRT later, their brains have already "seen" menopause, thus leading to the different results. see the rest of the article here...

http://health.yahoo.com/news/174736;_ylt=AtQBa3Sczn2ONoiTCBHYCPOmxbAB