THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160548
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: 85 lines
Women who take estrogen supplements to reduce the symptoms of menopause may gain an added benefit, new research suggests: a lowered risk of Alzheimer's disease.
In the most convincing study to examine the link between estrogen and Alzheimer's, women who took the hormone pills for as little as one year were significantly less likely to get the debilitating brain disease than were women who never took the supplements. The longer they took the estrogen, the lower their odds of getting Alzheimer's.
``If you took it for 10 years, it came out to about a 30 to 40 percent reduction in risk,'' said study leader Richard Mayeux of Columbia University in New York. ``That is quite a substantial reduction.''
Black, white and Hispanic women benefited equally from estrogen, as did women with varying educational and socioeconomic levels.
``That was when we knew we had something,'' said Mayeux, who noted that researchers consider education and affluence to be factors of reduced Alzheimer's risk.
Experts said the findings, appearing in Saturday's issue of the Lancet, were not strong enough to warrant an immediate recommendation that most older women start taking the supplements. Among the possible side effects is a small increase in the risk of breast cancer.
But they said the work is sufficiently compelling to justify a large, federally sponsored clinical trial to settle the question of whether estrogen can help prevent the brain disease. Moreover, scientists said, ongoing efforts to see how the hormone may protect the brain could lead to the development of new Alzheimer's drugs useful for women and men alike.
About 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a poorly understood neurological syndrome that gradually robs victims of their memories and eventually their ability to care for themselves. It has no known cause or cure and costs the nation an estimated $100 billion annually in health care expenses and lost productivity.
Estrogen is the primary female hormone, whose production in the ovaries tapers off with the onset of menopause. About 25 percent of postmenopausal women in this country take estrogen replacement pills to reduce the immediate symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and insomnia, and many continue to do so for years.
A study released earlier this week confirmed that long-term estrogen replacement therapy reduces the risk of heart disease (the No. 1 killer of women). It also lowers the risk of osteoporosis. Some studies have also found that use of the supplements for 15 to 20 years or more may increase the risk of breast cancer, although those findings remain controversial.
Many menopausal women perform better on cognitive tests after starting a regimen of estrogen replacement, and test tube studies with cultured nerve cells have suggested that the female hormone is a nerve-nurturing compound. Three previous studies have suggested the hormone is protective against Alzheimer's but at least one large study did not.
In the latest study, Mayeux and his colleagues studied 1,124 healthy women age 70 and older and watched for the onset of Alzheimer's during a five-year period. Among those who had taken estrogen (length of use varied from two months to 49 years), 2.7 percent were diagnosed with Alzheimer's each year. For those who had never taken estrogen, 8.4 percent developed Alzheimer's each year.
None of the 23 elderly women who were still taking estrogen when the study started developed Alzheimer's. For those who took estrogen but developed Alzheimer's anyway, hormone use seemed to delay the onset of disease.
The study, however, did not provide information about the most beneficial doses of estrogen, how long it should be taken or the best formulation of the hormone. The clinical trial would resolve those issues and more, researchers said.
Dr. William B. Ershler, director of the Glennan Center for Geriatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, said the effect of estrogen on dementia in women is also being studied as part of the National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative study. The nationwide estrogen and dementia study, which was begun only recently, will provide the definitive answer on this issue, he said.
Estrogen replacement therapy has numerous benefits for women late in life, Ershler said.
``We believe estrogen given in late life will reduce the rate of the development of the frail appearance,'' he said, ``not just in women's bones, but in their body composition.'' MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Washington Post, The
Associated Press, The New York Times and staff writer Debra Gordon. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HIGHLIGHTS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: HORMONE REPLACEMENT ESTROGEN by CNB