“Why did my primary-care physician give me an antidepressant when I could have had something simple, like estrogen?” she asked. “Why don’t they know?”…. By Bob DeMarco Alzheimer’s Reading Room Did you know, 68 percent of the persons that have Alzheimer’s disease are women? “Sixty-eight percent of all victims of Alzheimer’s are women. Is it just because they live longer? Let’s say it is, for purposes of discussion. Let’s say it’s just because these ladies get old. Do we just say, ‘Who cares?’ and move them into a nursing home? Or alternatively, maybe they are telling us something.” — Dr. Roberta Diaz Brinton “These women thought they were losing their minds,” Brizendine said, describing the 40-to-60-year-old patients she began seeing when she opened the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the university in 1994. “In 1994 we didn’t have words for it,” she said. “Now we do. It’s called perimenopausal depression.” Facts about estrogen and Alzheimer’s disease Estrogen is important to the building and maintenance of nerve networks in the brain from early on in life. Several studies are now pointing to the fact that estrogen may offer protection against Alzheimer’s disease in post menopausal women. One study conducted on almost 90,000 postmenopausal women found that those taking estrogen had a significantly longer life and by the time of their deaths, the women on estrogen had a 40 percent lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Estrogen docking sites are present in several regions of the brain, including those involved in memory (such as the hippocampus). When activated by estrogen, these sites, in turn, activate processes that are beneficial to the brain. In addition, estrogen may, in effect, raise levels of certain brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).

Original Source of The Estrogen Dilemma and Alzheimer’s Disease Revisited