Protect Your Brain from the Perils of Polypharmacy
Prescription
drugs cause over 100,000 deaths per year and cause another 1.5 million
people to experience side effects so severe they must be hospitalized.
This is in part due to the problem of polypharmacy, or taking several
drugs at once that interact in negative and sometimes unexpected ways.Every medication carries the risk of side effects. When more than one drug at a time is taken, the risks increase exponentially. When you consider that the average 65-year-old takes 5 medications, you can imagine how widespread the problem of polypharmacy is.
Medications and Your Brain
Armon Neel is a board-certified geriatric pharmacist who has devoted his career to guiding health professionals and older adults in the appropriate use of medication. He writes AARP’s Ask the Pharmacist column.In his new book, Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?, he contends that as many as 3 out of 4 Alzheimer’s cases could be caused by drug interactions. This is shocking!
He
points out that polypharmacy becomes a greater concern as you grow
older. Not only are seniors taking more medications, but the ones they
take aren’t handled by the body as well as when they were young.Livers and kidneys no longer work as efficiently and have a harder time breaking down and eliminating drugs from the system. This is why some people who have been on a drug for years might suddenly find it causes side effects as they age.
Many medications can lead to a false-positive diagnosis for dementia or Alzheimer’s. One way common mechanism for this is the reduction in the brain’s level of acetylcholine, the primary neurotransmitter involved with memory and learning. This can lead to symptoms that resemble dementia including mental confusion, delirium, blurred vision, memory loss, and hallucinations.
Avoid the “Anti-” Drugs
Here are three of the worst-offending categories of drugs to watch out for:- If you take a drug that starts with “anti”, such as antihistamines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, antibiotics, antispasmodics, or antihypertensives, it’s likely that it will affect your acetylcholine levels, and your brain function.
- Sleeping pills are notorious for causing memory loss. Ambien so commonly induces memory loss that some have coined it “the amnesia drug”. There are better ways to get to sleep!
- Probably the single worst group of drugs for your brain would be the statin drugs, which are used to lower cholesterol levels. These drugs cause memory loss so frequently that they are now required to state they can cause memory loss on the label.
Another frightening side effect is that they can lead to diabetes. Just this week on the Dr. Oz show, Dr. Steven Sinatra cited the alarming statistic that 48% of women who take these medications become diabetic! One very important point to remember is that low cholesterol levels do not equate to a healthy heart!
Dr.
Duane Graveline, a medical doctor and NASA astronaut, wrote an
eye-opening account of the dangers of one popular statin drug in Lipitor Thief of Memory.
He experienced two bouts of serious memory loss diagnosed as transient
global amnesia (TGA). Ultimately, this was traced to his taking Lipitor.He is now on another mission — to warn of the perils of cholesterol lowering drugs. You can find over 250 articles on cholesterol, statin drugs, and their side effects on his website SpaceDoc.com.
If you aren’t sure if your medications are causing cognitive problems, we’ve published a list of the top 20 medications that can cause memory loss. Keep in mind that drugs don’t have to be prescription medications to cause problems. Sometimes adding an over-the-counter treatment to the mix can be dangerous as well.
Steps You Can Take If You’re on Multiple Meds
Fortunately, drug-induced dementia can usually be reversed just by stopping the offending medication. So if you take medications and suspect they might be causing cognitive problems, here are some steps Armon Neel recommends you can take:- Take inventory of what you are taking. Write down every medication, dosage, and when you started taking it.
- Talk to your doctor about what you are taking, how much you are taking, and why you are taking it. If you have more than one physician, have this conversation with each.
- Ask if there are any non-drug approaches you can take instead. Find out the consequences of stopping any medication. If there are any medications that can be eliminated, discuss a plan for getting off them and follow the plan.
- You should always get all your medications filled by the same pharmacy. Talk to your pharmacist about your regime to make sure there are no known interactions.
from the newsletter of Brainfit.com
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Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?: How to Prevent Dangerous Interactions, Avoid Deadly Side Effects, and Be Healthier with Fewer Drugs by Armon B. Neel, Jr., PharmD and Bill HoganLipitor Thief of Memory by Dr. Duane Graveline
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