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Anticholinergic Drugs
Cause Dementia and Brain Shrinkage
Researchers
at the Indiana University School of Medicine are responsible for a new study
that is one of the most alarming drug
side effect studies to be released in years. They published it in the
journal JAMA Neurology.
Specific
types of drugs
cause your brain to shrink and your ability to think and draw conclusions to
seriously diminish.
What’s
even scarier is that these drugs
are some of the most commonly prescribed medications
for people over 60. And used for both mild and serious health issues.
Therefore,
it’s more likely than not that you’re either taking these types of drugs or
will be pushed to take them soon.
Their
participants were 451 people in their early 70s, of whom 60 were taking
anticholinergic drugs. The other 391 were medication-free.
After
structural magnetic resonance imaging (SMRI) scans, cognitive functioning, and
memory tests repeated several times over at least two years, the scientists
could clearly see that the brains of those on the anticholinergic medications
were smaller than those of the non-drug takers.
The
atrophy was not limited either; it was spread all over. Drug takers had smaller
cerebral cortices on both the left and right cerebral hemispheres. This
basically means the outer layer of the neural tissue across their entire
brains!
Their
temporal lobes were also thinner. The temporal lobes are the parts of your
brain that understand language, encode sensory information into meaningful
memories, and make appropriate associations between events and emotions (fear
that snake, for example.)
In
addition, their lateral ventricles were larger than those of non-drug takers
were. Many previous studies, such as one in a 2012 edition of the journal Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, have confirmed that
lateral ventricles enlarge as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease advance.
Consequently,
together with the structural changes in their brains, the cognitive functioning
tests were also depressing.
They
scored lower than non-drug takers on memory and recall, on executive
decision-making and control, and on logical associations.
These
are pretty major disabilities that are worth preventing by avoiding the anticholinergic
drugs that give rise to them.
So
what are anticholinergic drugs?
They
are medications that block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine throughout your
nervous system. The only problem is that acetylcholine has a huge number of
functions.
As
such, anticholinergic drugs are prescribed as treatments for:
•
asthma and other respiratory problems,
• allergies (Antihistamines),
• incontinence,
• diarrhea,
• insomnia,
• dizziness and motionsickness (antiemetics),
• muscle pain or spasms (muscle relaxants and antispasmotics),
• high blood pressure,
• abnormal heart rhythm (antiarrythmics),
• Parkinson’s disease, anxiety and depression (antipsychotics and tricyclic antidepressants).
• allergies (Antihistamines),
• incontinence,
• diarrhea,
• insomnia,
• dizziness and motionsickness (antiemetics),
• muscle pain or spasms (muscle relaxants and antispasmotics),
• high blood pressure,
• abnormal heart rhythm (antiarrythmics),
• Parkinson’s disease, anxiety and depression (antipsychotics and tricyclic antidepressants).
If
these sound difficult to avoid, it is because they are.
The
researchers propose that people who enter the senior years try to avoid them
almost completely, as they are at greatest risk of brain atrophy.
This
is not the first time scientists have raised the alarm over these
medications. JAMA Internal Medicine published an article
in 2009 that described a study on 4,128 women and 2,784 men aged 65 and older.
It
also concluded that anticholinergics lowered their verbal fluency, global
cognitive functioning, visual memory, and executive function.
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