Dr Bollmann, Skin Care Specialist, Anti-Aging Expert

As a gynecologist, I have long been a proponent of estrogen replacement in the menopause. It affects the whole body, especially the brain. Although it is anecdotal evidence, I watched my two aunts age. Although they were roughly the same age, the one who refused to take estrogen ended up asking the other one who did if they had to go to school today, and eventually died. The one who took estrogen is clear as a bell, reads political books constantly, and just turned 90.

In my patients, it was clear that those who took estrogen looked younger, acted younger, and had better skin. They also had less disease.

If I could give any advice to those women who read this blog, take estrogen when you hit menopause. Take it right away, preferably bio-identical hormones, especially bi-est. Bi-est contains estradiol and estriol; the latter has been shown to decrease the incidence of cancer of the breast by 20%.

So I was encouraged to read the following from Longevity magazine:

"There currently are 53 supercentenarians – people age 110 years and over, alive today; and 51 of them are female.   Ben Dulken, from Stanford University (California, USA), and colleagues explored the potential underlying reasons why no other demographic factor comes remotely close to sex in predicting the likelihood of achieving such an advanced age.  With consideration for current knowledge about stem cell behavior and sex, the researchers submit that there are key differences in regenerative decline between men and women: particularly involving the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone in modifying lifespan.  Previous studies report that estrogen has direct effects on stem cell populations in female mice, from increasing the number of blood stem cells to enhancing the regenerative capacity of brain stem cells.  Further, other recent studies suggest that estrogen supplementation may increase the lifespan of male mice. (As I mentioned above, I observed this in humans during my many years of practice).

Observing that:  “Longevity differs between sexes, with females being longer-lived in most mammals, including humans. One hallmark of aging is the functional decline of stem cells,” the authors consider that:  “a key question is whether the aging of stem cells differs between males and females and whether this has consequences for disease and lifespan.”

My opinion: It is the estrogen.