This study is one of the most damaging piece of evidence I have seen over the last 5+ years negating the claim of mainstream medicine that estrogen is protective for the brain and the reason post-menopausal women have increased risk of dementia (of which Alzheimer’s is the most common type) is the “deficiency” of estrogen that medicine says is the defining characteristic of menopause. More specifically, the study below found that using pure estrogen receptor antagonists (e.g. Faslodex, also known as Fulvestrant, or its non-steroidal analog Elacestrant) or aromatase inhibitors (e.g. letrozole) was linked to lower risk of developing dementia across the entire expected female lifespan, with the beneficial effects of those substances being more pronounced in patients under 75 years of age. Now, the reason this study is so important and damaging to the “good estrogen” hypothesis is that prior studies with similar conclusions typically used one of the non-steroidal so-called SERM drugs (e.g. clomiphene, tamoxifen, raloxifene, etc), which have anti-estrogenic effects in some tissues but are potent estrogens in others. As such, the studies with the SERM drugs showing protective effects again dementia were always explained away by medicine as actually confirming the “benefit” of estrogen for the brain since the SERM drugs are partially estrogenic, and especially so in the brain. The is no such angle of attack possible for this study since the estrogen blockers it looked at are “pure” – i.e. they are highly selective blockers of estrogen receptors with no other known major effects. And in case medicine would try to still argue that some unknown estrogenic effect explains the benefit of those drugs, the fact that aromatase inhibitors (AI) also had protective effects pretty much seals the verdict for estrogen being a baddy. Of course, the study findings suggest other substances with anti-estrogenic effects would also likely have protective effects against dementia – i.e. all fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), aspirin, progesterone, DHT, flavones/flavanones (apigenin, naringenin, chrysin, quercetin, luteolin), etc. Curious to hear/see how medicine would respond to this study, especially considering it is published in JAMA, so it would be hard to dismiss as a fake…
Oh, one nefarious thing I noticed is that the popular press article still tries to tie progesterone in as a co-culprit. The article says the anti-estrogenic drugs mentioned in the study are used to treat breast cancer caused by “estrogen and progesterone”. So, the public might get an idea that progesterone is bad and may increase risk of dementia (or cancer), when the exact opposite is the case. Namely, the drugs mentioned in the study target exclusively estrogen and estrogen-positive cancers (not progesterone-positive cancers), and progesterone just so happens to be both an estrogen receptor antagonist and an AI. Another nefarious tactic is also seen in the study itself. It calls the clearly anti-estrogenic therapy “hormone modulating therapy” (HMT), which both avoids stating that the therapy is purely estrogen blocking in nature (in contrast to the SERM drugs) while also being targeted solely at estrogen (and not progesterone). Once again, we have science being twisted to serve Big Pharma and to avoid stating the obvious conclusion based on the study findings. Namely, estrogen is a cause of dementia/Alzhemier’s and anti-estrogenic therapy (of which progesterone is perhaps the most well-known example) is protective and possibly even therapeutic for dementias that have already set in.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2821165
https://www.curetoday.com/view/breast-cancer-treatment-may-protect-against-dementia
“…[Hormone-modulating therapies] (HMT), such as Faslodex (fulvestrant), Orserdu (elacestrant) and Femara (letrozole) are used to treat cancers that are affected by hormones estrogen and progesterone, according to the American Cancer Society. Prior research has shown mixed results on whether HMTs increase or decrease the risk of dementias.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240716122709.htm
“…About two-thirds of breast cancer patients have tumors that are hormone receptor positive, meaning that they grow in response to estrogen or progesterone. For these patients, HMT can impede tumor growth by blocking hormones from attaching to these receptors. While use of HMT is linked with increased survival, there is conflicting evidence about whether it increases or decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), debilitating conditions that are characterized by memory loss, changes in mood or behavior, and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving and reasoning.”
“…To calculate the risk of developing ADRD, the researchers accounted for the risk of death associated with increased age and duration of exposure to HMT. They found that while HMT use was associated with an overall decrease in the relative risk of developing ADRD, the protective effect of HMT was most pronounced in patients aged 65 through 69 and diminished with age.”
“…”Our study suggests that younger women may benefit more from HMT in terms of reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia,” said Cai. “The benefits of HMT decreased for women aged 75 and older, particularly in those who identified as white. This suggests that the timing of HMT initiation is crucial and treatment plans should be tailored to a patient’s age.””
