BOSTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Women who use hormone therapy before the age of 65 could cut their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, suggests a preliminary U.S. study.
The study looked at prior hormone use in 7,153 healthy women ages 65 to 79 before they enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.
Women who began estrogen-only therapy after the age of 65 had roughly a 50 percent increased risk of developing dementia, but the risk jumped to nearly double for women using estrogen-plus-progestin hormone therapy, according to findings presented at the Academy of Neurology's 59th annual meeting in Boston.
Prior studies have shown that hormone therapy started during the WHI Memory Study increased a woman's chance of dementia.
"Further studies are needed to support these findings and learn more about how hormone therapy affects the long-term cognitive health of women who begin use before age 65," study author Dr. Victor W. Henderson, of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement.
