Anticoagulants & Dementia
Here's some good news for anyone who's
worried about developing dementia later on in life. A breakthrough study
from the European Society of Cardiology has found that blood-thinning
medication (also known as anticoagulants) used to decrease the risk of
heart attacks and strokes for patients suffering from atrial
fibrillation (AF) may also be able to significantly lower the risk of
getting dementia.
This fantastic discovery, which was
recently published in the European Heart Journal, could provide hope to
many people who are at risk of developing dementia all around the world.
The researchers reached this conclusion by collecting and studying the
health data of 444,000 Swedish sufferers of AF, who were diagnosed
between 2006 and 2014, paying particular attention to the drugs that
each patient was prescribed.
According to the study's co-author, Dr. Leif Friberg from Stockholm's
Karolinska Institute, "there are AF patients who have a fatalistic view
on stroke. Either it happens or it does not. Few patients are fatalistic
about dementia, which gradually makes you lose your mind.” He also said
that "no brain can withstand a constant bombardment of microscopic
clots in the long run. Patients probably want to hang on to as many of
their little grey cells for as long as they can.”
Despite establishing concrete links between AF, dementia, and
anticoagulants, the team still hasn't discovered what causes their
relationship. However, they "strongly suggested" that commonly
prescribed anticoagulants, such as apixaban, warfarin, rivaroxaban,
edoxaban, and dabigatran, protected patients by not allowing
dementia-causing blood clots to ever develop.
In spite of the uncertainty, Dr. Friberg
still believes that AF patients would be wise to keep taking
anticoagulants regularly. He says that "doctors should not tell their
patients to stop using oral anticoagulants without a really good reason.
To patients, I would say don’t stop unless your doctor says so." Just
because they haven't found the underlying reason for their
effectiveness, it doesn't mean that they don't work.
According to Dr. Carol Routledge, the Head of Science at Alzheimer’s
Research UK, "the findings highlight a need to investigate this link
further, but the nature of the study prevents us from firmly concluding
that anticoagulants reduce the risk of dementia." She also said that "it
will be important to see the results of other ongoing studies in this
area, as well as teasing apart the exact relationship between
anticoagulants and the risk of different types of dementia.”
If you know anyone who might find this information interesting, then
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