Scary thing under everyone's bed

No doubt about it. Everybody of every age is scared of Alzheimer's disease and they are right. It's a cruel brain disorder, not just for the afflicted, but for those who care for them. What's more, late-stage care in a nursing home is mega-expensive unless someone is on Medicaid, and those tax dollars are expensive for all of us. So, add in all the money it takes to care for the coming flood of Alzhammered Boomers and you have, not only a personal disaster for the afflicted and their families, but a financial challenge on all levels.

What about prevention?

You have to look hard for information — mostly in medical journals — but here is one somewhat startling idea for possibly preventing the disease. (I'll write about another next week.) This first idea is from a study published just last week in the respected medical journal, Neurology:

Common drugs, both over-the-counter and prescription, are associated with cognitive impairment, which means your brain isn't working right. Think memory loss. Now it has been known for a while that certain common drugs cause memory loss and even delirium in the aged. However, what this investigation confirmed, according to clinical pharmacist, Noll Campbell, is that “something as seemingly benign as a medication for inability to get a good night's sleep or for motion sickness can cause or worsen cognitive impairment, specifically long-term mild cognitive impairment which involves gradual memory loss.”

So what are the suspects?

A class of drugs known in the med biz as anticholinergics. They block acetylcholine, an important transmitter in the brain. You may be surprised to know their names: Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM and Unisom. On the prescription front, common anticholinergics are Paxil, Detrol, Demerol and Elavil. To find out other drugs on the list, go to the website of the Indianapolis Discovery Network for Dementia at www.tinyurl.com/23dfekv. Click on “Anticholinergic Burden Scale” to download the list.

And it's not just this one study that links short-term cognitive impairment and possible long-term cognitive impairment to this class of drugs. There are other studies and there should be further ones, especially those constructed to detect how long and how deeply this class of drugs can effect the brain.

As for what may not yet be known by your doc about which drugs can effect memory, the Indiana researchers are keen to see physicians look at their posted list as many busy docs are not aware of the anticholinergic properties of new medications.

Talk to your doc, talk to yourself

Dr. Malaz Boustani, one leader of the study, tells his patients not to take these drugs and he tells the rest of us to talk to our docs about each and every med we are taking, including all the common ones that live in medicine cabinets everywhere. Only you and your doc and the Dr. Mom in your house can decide what, if anything, to do about this. I will track the issue and post new developments here. Docs and other health care workers can learn a lot by looking at the list of meds on the Discovery Network for Dementia site above.

A longer article about this issue can be found at www.seniorjournal.com under News Alerts.

About last week's column …

A week ago, we considered the various ways of keeping cool during the next thousand years of global warming. Well, alert readers want you to know that there is indeed a local place to find folding fans for your purse, car, office or house. Look in the little gift store down and behind Bonanza Market, 321 Broad Street. Asian-themed Bonanza Gifts carries 20 kinds of fans. Phone: (530) 265-8556.

Stay cool.

Mel Walsh is a gerontologist, author and columnist. Her book, “Hot Granny,” is available at The Book Seller in Grass Valley. Visit Mel at www.melwalsh.com.