I agree with the other ladies' comments about adequate sleep & regular exercise. Though HRT is still a work in progress for me, I'm able to both sleep & exercise better on it than without, so my feeling is HRT helps protect both my brain and body. My mood is also better on HRT & that means I find it easier to commit to eating healthily, as we all know thought protective against all manner of degenerative processes.
Mum's mum was, in old age, what they used to call back in the 1970s "a bit confused" but dad's mum was still baking & icing Christmas cakes for each of her 7 kids & their families into her late 80s & lived into her 90s without any hint of mental decline. Unlikely either of them took HRT, but they died decades ago so I don't know for sure.
I think all each of us can do is read up for ourselves as much as we find helpful, bearing in mind there's a lot of questionable & ever-changing info out there that can be hard to interpret & importantly, go with our gut instinct about what's right for us as individuals. Chronic stress is known to be damaging to physical & mental health so anything we can do that helps with relaxation, especially if sleep is problematical, must also be a good thing. With that in mind I try not to worry too much about needing HRT, though I think it's sensible also to try to keep up with reliable sources of published research for any particular areas of concern we have, turning to those when media reports suggest something new's come to light that needs consideration. We can always review what's best for us in the light of changing expert opinion & our own changing circumstances & see how we are without HRT if that feels the right course of action.
