A possible antidote to Alzheimer's may be coursing through women's bodies.Neuropsychologist Martin Costa, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, believes estrogen may actually help post-menopausal women fend off forgetfulness. The only problem is, when women need it most--risk for the disease rises after menopause--their hormone levels plunge.
That's where astrogen replacement therapy (ERT) comes in. Costa and colleagues recently combed through the medical records of a California Alzheimer's clinic and found that women who received ERT showed no further signs of memory loss after a year of taking the hormone. Women who weren't taking estrogen, however, suffered the gradual recall problems characteristics of Alzheimer's patients, Costa says it probably stimulates surviving brain cells to grow new branches, increasing the number of mental highways--or neuronal detours--by which information, memories, and messages travel through the brain.
