Page 194 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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Lessons from Arthritis

In rheumatoid arthritis, the kind that causes swelling and deformity of the fingers and toes, as well as
the hands and feet, the body's immune system mistakenly identifies joint tissue parts as alien and
attacks them with a vengeance. Since many people who suffer from this disease regularly have to
take high doses of anti-inflammatory medications, the question arises: do these people have a lower
prevalence of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease, compared to the rest of the population?

Patrick McGeer and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Canada conducted a
comprehensive review of seventeen studies conducted in nine countries to evaluate the associations
between the use of anti-inflammatory medications and Alzheimer's disease. They concluded that the
use of either NSAIDs or steroids cuts the risk of having Alzheimer's disease by approximately half.
This finding held up whichever way the data were analyzed: looking at the presence of rheumatoid
arthritis alone, the use of either NSAIDs or steroids, or a combination of these treatments. Some of
these effects of nonsteroidal medications in Alzheimer's disease and stroke may also apply to
treatment and prevention of mild memory loss.

Taking Anti-inflammatory Agents for Memory Loss

In a survey of people living at home, John Breitner of Duke University discovered that elderly
people who were taking anti-inflammatory agents like aspirin and ibuprofen were less likely to get
dementia than the rest of the population. Breitner has continued this work after moving to Johns
Hopkins, and has found a protective effect for NSAIDs against dementia in a large study of twins.
Other reports from Johns Hopkins showed that Alzheimer's patients who took NSAIDs performed
better on neuropsychological tests. Approaching the same problem from a different angle, Japanese
researchers demonstrated that the use of dapsone, which is an antileprosy agent with anti-
inflammatory properties, was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer's
disease.

Placebo-controlled trials using both over-the-counter and prescription anti-inflammatory
medications have involved very few subjects, but the results are quite intriguing. J. Rogers and
colleagues at the Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona conducted a six-month study using the
NSAID indomethacin (Indocin) and placebo in twenty-eight patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Patients on indomethacin