Cognitive decline — is it the natural aging process, or does the problem come from the medicine cabinet?

Lurking…out in the open

Every day millions of people have those “senior moments.” The ones that make you wonder if it’s the beginning of Alzheimer’s and have your family starting to talk about “what to do.”

Believe it or not…”what to do” may be as simple as eliminating just one of the pills you’re taking.

That is, if the pill is an anticholinergic drug.

But wait! Before you run to check the drug information panel or pamphlet with your pills, you won’t find the information you need there.

You see, anticholinergic isn’t a class of drugs. And it’s not an ingredient. So you can get out a giant magnifying glass and read a medication guide from beginning to end, but it still won’t tell you if you’re taking an anticholinergic.

That’s because “anticholinergic” describes a drug’s action, not it’s recipe.

A little goes a long way

Anticholinergics work by blocking a key neurotransmitter.

Researchers have been tracking problems linked to anticholinergics for years. So they’ve known these drugs can cause brain fog.

They just didn’t know how bad it could be.

A new study confirms their worst fears — especially for seniors. A single anticholinergic drug can prompt cognitive impairment when its used for as little as 60 days.

And anticholinergics include many OTC and prescription drugs. And some are widely used.

So it’s critical to sound the alarm. Because we’ve now learned that using two or more of these drugs for just three months can lead to full blown dementia.

Obviously, many older patients use more than one of these drugs, which include sleep aids, COPD meds, and allergy meds.

So those “senior moments” may be medication-induced and have nothing to do with age or mental acuity.

So check the medicine cabinet to see how many anticholinergics you or a loved one might be taking.

You can find a list of drugs that fall into this category at this link. Along with a list of possible anticholinergic effects.

Here’s a quick tip that a drug you’re using might land in one of those categories…

If a drug is in a class that begins with the prefix “anti,” that’s your red flag. Antidepressants, antihistamines, antihypertensives — these and other “anti” drugs may lay the groundwork for something that starts as brain fog, then turns into something much worse.

But anti-inflammatories are NOT on the list. So check the list before you start tossing.

Sources:
“Long-term anticholinergic use and the aging brain” Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Vol. 9, No. 4, July 2013, alzheimersanddementia.com