GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
Estrogen is the female sex hormone. The ovaries produce estrogen up until the menopause. Low
levels of estrogen have been linked to osteoporosis,
arteriosclerosis, declining cognitive function and increased
risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
ROLE FOR ANTI-AGING:
Estrogen’s anti-aging benefits may include
decrease in osteoporosis, decrease in
heart attacks and strokes, improved memory and cognitive function, reversal of thinning of skin and
drying of mucous membranes, and increased lifespan.
Research suggests that estrogen has
neuroprotective, neurostimulating, and neurotrophic effects.
Several studies have suggested that estrogen reduces the
risk and slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, but there is no conclusive evidence demonstrating the protective effects of
estrogen against Alzheimer’s.
Marks, Batra, and Frishman, the authors of a
review published in 2002, do suggest that the hormone’s neuroprotective effects may make it a
suitable preventive therapy in women deemed at high risk of
developing the neurodegenerative disease. A study reported
in 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that post-menopausal women using
estrogen experience as much as a 50% reduction in
osteoporosis, heart attack, stroke, reversal of thinning of
the skin and mucous membrane, significant reduction
and possibly reversals in Alzheimer ‘s disease and extended lifespan.
DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS:
Bone loss (osteoporosis)
THERAPEUTIC DAILY AMOUNT:
Estrogen should only be supplemented on the
advice of a doctor.
MAXIMUM SAFE LEVEL:
established
SIDE EFFECTS/CONTRAINDICATIONS:
Conflicting information exists as to whether
estrogen replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer, but some researchers indicate
that combined estrogen-progestin therapy may eliminate this
risk. Similarly, some studies indicate an increase in the
risk of developing endometrial cancer when using estrogen replacement. Again, it seems that
coadministration of progestin may decrease this
risk.
