Early Menopause, Hormones & Other Female Alzheimer's Disease Risk Factors

Women are two times more likely1 than men to develop Alzheimer's disease, and scientists are starting to dig deeper into why the female sex is so much more susceptible.

Researchers found participants with elevated Amyloid β protein (aka Aβ, a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease) that were female, used hormone therapy (in the past or during the study), and started menopause at an earlier age were significantly more likely to have higher regional tau PET (another biomarker for Alzheimer's disease). Of the women that used hormone therapy, the study found that starting five years or more after menopause was associated with higher tau PET than starting earlier. 

As Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D., neuroscientist, nutritionist, and associate director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, previously explained in a mindbodygreen podcast episode, reproductive hormones help protect our brains from the development of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease.

As demonstrated by this JAMA Neurology study, hormone therapy can be a neuroprotective measure against Alzheimer's disease for women, when timed correctly (i.e., shortly after menopause).