ESTROGEN AFTER MENOPAUSE KEEPS HER SMART.

Report #6171 4/11/94

Taking estrogen after the menopause helps to prevent heart attacks, osteoporosis, hot flushes and vaginal dryness. Recent research show that it also helps to keep a woman smart, elevate her mood, make her feel better and prevent Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Barbara Sherwin of McGill University showed that women who take estrogen are able to memorize and reason better than those who don't take estrogen.

Dr. Victor Henderson of the University of California showed that women who take estrogen have a 40% less chance of suffering from Alzheimer's disease, a condition that damages the brain permanently. * He also reported that women who took estrogen, but still got Alzheimer's disease, performed better on tests of attention and memory.

People with Alzheimer's disease have low brain levels of acetyl choline, a neurotransmitter that sends messages from one nerve to another. Estrogen increases production of the enzyme that makes acetyl choline and therefore raises brain acetyl choline levels.

Several studies show that removing a rat's ovaries (which produce estrogen) causes nerves junctions to disappear.

Fat women are far less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than skinny ones. After the menopause, fat is the major source of estrogen. It manufactures it from testosterone, so fat women have more fat and therefore, much higher body levels of estrogen.

Old men are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than older women because they have higher estrogen levels in their brains. Men never lose their testosterone and the human brain converts testosterone to estrogen. So the more testosterone you have, the more estrogen your brain makes.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News