PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Some potentially good news for older women on hormone replacement therapy.
A nationwide study from Sweden found that women between the ages of 50 to 80 who were receiving HRT were 50 percent less likely to die from COVID-19.
Experts said it suggests a possible protective effect from estrogen.
“We know that anything that makes you feel younger, makes you younger, basically. If you’re younger, you’re less likely to die of COVID, and the estrogen, I think, simply helps our immune systems and the rest of our body to stay younger and that’s why we see a 50 percent less frequency of deaths from COVID in people who are taking the bioidentical or other estrogen replacement,” said Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, a specialist in chronic fatigue.
Teitelbaum said the findings are not a reason alone to start HRT, which can increase the risk of certain cancers, blood clots and stroke.
Also in today’s health news, even light to moderate alcohol intake, as few as one or two drinks a day, has been linked with reductions in overall brain volume.
The study among 37,000 healthy adults in the U.K. found that two drinks a day caused brain changes equivalent to the effect of aging two years.
Three drinks was equal to aging 3 1/2 years.
Nearly 90% of all regional gray matter volumes showed significant negative correlations with alcohol intake, and lower volume was not localized to any one brain region.