Those Hot-Flash Patches Could Help Your Brain, Too

Hormone replacement therapy long viewed as a fix for hot flashes may also have a link to brain health, new research suggests. In the largest study of its kind, scientists followed 180,000-plus postmenopausal women in the UK for about 13 years and found that those who used HRT for at least a year were 10% less likely to develop dementia and 16% less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's than nonusers, reports the Guardian. The biggest benefit appeared in women who'd had surgical menopause, with a 26% lower risk of any kind of dementia, and in women carrying the higher-risk APOE4 gene.

The findings, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, are observational, meaning they can't prove HRT is the cause. Experts stress that more research is needed and say women should discuss HRT's risks and benefits with their doctors. "The findings suggest that HRT could have greater protective benefits for some groups, highlighting the potential for more personalized approaches to prevention [of dementia]," Amanda Collis of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, who wasn't involved in the study, says in a release.