Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Alzheimer's block

BP medication may keep Alzheimer's at bay

BREAKTHROUGH New research offers cheer for Alzheimer's patients

Medicines for high blood pressure may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study. Researchers followed more than 3,300 people over 65 for six years, obtaining information on mental status and use of drugs for hypertension. Of the group, 104 eventually developed Alzheimer's disease.

Taking any drug to reduce blood pressure — including enzyme inhibitors, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and diuretics — was associated with a 36 percent decrease in the risk for Alzheimer's.

Diuretics were associated with a greater risk reduction, 43 percent. One kind, potassium-sparing diuretics, was associated with the greatest risk reduction, 74 percent compared with those who took no blood pressure medicine.

Statistical analysis showed that the results were independent of the medicines' ability to control blood pressure, and the researchers were uncertain why diuretics in particular proved so effective. The study is online (archneur.ama-assn.org) and will appear in the May issue of Archives of Neurology. The scientists acknowledge that the study has limits, especially because it is observational in nature, studying a group over a period of time, as opposed to a controlled experiment.

``The study raises the possibility that taking potassium-sparing diuretics may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's,'' said Peter P. Zandi, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. But, he cautioned, no one should now decide to take blood pressure medicine to prevent Alzheimer's disease. ``The findings of this study,'' he said, ``raise an interesting hypothesis that needs to be investigated further before we can make conclusive recommendations to people about what they should or should not be taking.''

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail