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Dr. Mary Tierney, neuropsychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, is fascinated by the complex links between menopause and memory, an area of research she believes may one day help lower the risk of dementia in women. While doctors have long known women are more likely than men to get dementia, Tierney's research suggests some promising possibilities for treatment. A woman's estrogen level declines after menopause, plummeting in some, gradually dissipating in others, she explains.
That's important because the region of the brain linked to memory, the hippocampus, is chock full of receptors for estrogen. In fact, the hormone is one of the keys to how the hippocampus functions. As estrogen declines, so does a woman's memory. Men, on the other hand, don't experience the same drastic decline in estrogen in their brains. Their sex hormone, testosterone, is converted in the brain into estrogen, and since testosterone doesn't significantly drop as men age, their hippocampus keeps working. The part that gets Dr. Tierney excited is that it may be possible to safely boost estrogen in aging women, keeping their hippocampus in working order. She recently wrapped up a clinical trial that showed a particular combination of estrogen-progesterone prevented a decline in verbal recall in older women who didn't have dementia. On the other hand, it didn't have as much of an effect on women whose cognition had already declined, as measured by their ability to verbally recall certain words. Declines in verbal recall are often an early signal that a person will develop Alzheimer's disease later in life. While Dr. Tierney is not ready to recommend her hormone replacement therapy to prevent memory loss until the findings have been replicated, she is buoyed by the possibilities for treating women before they start to experience memory problems.
This story is provided courtesy of one of our ten provincial member affiliated organizations. The Alzheimer Society of Ontario helps support The Alzheimer Society Research Program, which offers grants and training awards for biomedical and psychosocial research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and other research centres. The program is a collaborative effort among the Alzheimer Society of Canada, its provincial affiliates, partners, and donors. Read other inspiring profiles at www.alzheimerontario.org. Photo: John Rennison, Hamilton, ON.
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