These common meds can up your risk of dementia by 84 percent!

Alzheimer’s warning: New research finds possible cause

It’s a growing, urgent crisis. In a little over a minute, someone else in the U.S. will get Alzheimer’s disease.

And 1 in 3 seniors will die from it — or another type of dementia.

We’re told that the reason people get Alzheimer’s “isn’t clear.” Scientists talk about “a complex result of multiple factors,” such as age and genetics.

But there have just been some startling new findings. Researchers in Canada and France have discovered a likely “direct association” in developing the disease.

And here’s the good part of this news: you can boot this Alzheimer’s “association” out of your life.

It may be more difficult for some than others.

But it’s worth whatever it takes.

I recently told you about the dangers of benzodiazepines (benzos) and what’s called “Z” drugs. The familiar names include Ambien, Ambien CR, Intermezzo, Lunesta, Valium and Xanax.

Those who pop these pills are twice as likely to suffer a hip fracture or get involved in a car accident and five times more likely to have problems with concentration and memory.

But this new study goes way beyond having some trouble concentrating, or forgetting where you put the car keys.

I’m talking about that mind-robbing disease called Alzheimer’s. What can make us slowly lose our memories and connections with life.

This new research, published in the medical journal BMJ, found that those benzos and Z drugs can increase your risk of this terrible disease by up to 84 percent.

Let me say that again. Taking these drugs for anxiety and to help you sleep can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease by a gigantic 84 percent.

Now the researchers took into account something called “reverse causation bias.” What that means is that people who on their own had early signs of Alzheimer’s, like agitation and insomnia, took these drugs because of that.

So to make sure what they found wasn’t caused by this “bias” they looked at Alzheimer’s patients who had not used these meds for five to ten years before being diagnosed.

The researchers did “everything possible to overcome” these kinds of issues, said Dr. Malaz Boustani, a geriatric doctor who wrote an editorial praising how well the study was designed.

They also looked at longer and shorter durations of using these meds to see if that made a difference.

And it did — by a lot.

Seniors who took the benzo drugs for under 90 days did not seem to have an increased risk of dementia.

But over 90 days it was a different story. Seniors who took the drugs daily for 91 to 180 days upped their risk of Alzheimer’s by 32 percent.

And if you’re on them longer than 180 days — even if you stop and then start up again over several years — the Alzheimer’s risk jumps to that gigantic 84 percent I told you about.

That clearly shows the damaging effects of these drugs. It didn’t seem to matter if those studied took 1 pill every day for 180 days or if it took them years to reach that amount.

They still had that huge risk factor hanging over their heads.

But of course for many, 180 days is just a drop in the bucket. These drugs are often taken every single day. And that’s probably because they are highly addictive. It’s very easy to develop a dependence on them — to think you can’t get along without them.

Because of that it’s not so easy to stop. Especially when you’ve been taking them for a while.

In fact, you shouldn’t just stop, but wean yourself off them slowly to allow blood levels to drop gradually.

As I said, for many it will be tough.

But it might just be one of the most important things you do.

Sources:
“Study links anxiety drugs to Alzheimer’s disease” Paula Span, September 24, 2014, The New York Times, newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com<br>