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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The drugs you take for aches and pains could help prevent dementia in the future. A new study finds a link between long-term use of ibuprofen and a decreased risk of Alzheimers disease.
Previous research has shown conflicting results on this connection, but this is the longest study of its kind. For the research, study authors included 49,349 United States veterans over 55 years old who developed Alzheimers disease and 196,850 veterans without dementia. Data on the participants use of several non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) over five years was analyzed.
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Researchers say people who specifically used ibuprofen for more than five years were more than 40 percent less likely to develop Alzheimers disease. The results also showed the longer a person took ibuprofen, the lower the risk for dementia. Researchers also found a benefit with other NSAIDs. The study reports veterans who used NSAIDs for more than five years were 25 percent less likely to develop Alzheimers disease than non-users.
Study authors caution these results do not equate to a recommendation of taking ibuprofen or NSAIDs every day. Instead, they say this is an observational study and is subject to what is called indication bias. This means it might not be the ibuprofen that caused the lower risk of dementia, but rather something else those using ibuprofen chose to do instead. They also point out that the reason ibuprofen may have shown a better outcome could simply be because it is the most commonly used NSAID.
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SOURCE: Neurology, published online May 6, 2008
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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