Blood pressure drugs may help prevent dementia
Thrifty consumers looking to save money on their medications can shop at a Canadian internet pharmacy, many of which sell over the counter meds and brand name prescription drugs at a fraction of what they cost in the U.S.
Thrifty consumers looking to save money on their medications can shop at a Canadian internet pharmacy, many of which sell over the counter meds and brand name prescription drugs at a fraction of what they cost in the U.S. Scientific research continues to find new uses for drugs already on the market. A new study from the UK suggests that a type of drug to treat hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, may help avoid or delay the onset of some forms of dementia.
Blood pressure is regulated in part by the renin-angiotensin-system, which makes this pathway a reasonable target for certain medications to treat hypertension. Past research has linked this system to the effects of Alzheimer's disease on the brain, including memory loss, inflammation and poor blood circulation, according to researchers from the University of Bristol. The team wanted to take this idea a step further by seeing if drugs targeting the renin-angiotensin-system could affect two cognitive disorders: Alzheimer's and vascular dementia.
The scientists mined data from the General Practice Research Database, a collection of information from more than 10 million patients in the UK. The data showed that individuals older than 60 years who took one of two different drugs targeting the renin-angiotensin-system were 50 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's than patients taking other medicines for high blood pressure. For vascular dementia, the reduction in risk was 25 percent, as published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. New clinical trials will need to confirm this observation.
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