Popular allergy and sleep drugs linked to dementia

Guess who planted a time bomb in your brain?

It’s been a staple of your medicine cabinet for years. Just two pills every six hours, and you’re ready when the pollen starts flying or the cat starts shedding.

But that old, trusted Benadryl has been doing a lot more than clearing out your sinuses. It’s part of a class of drugs that is practically planting a time bomb in your brain.

I’m talking about a bomb that steals your cherished memories… and even your independence… one dangerous pill at a time.

University of Washington researchers just wrapped up a frightening study that followed 3,500 seniors for seven years, keeping track of folks who took anticholinergic drugs.

Now, you may not have heard of anticholinergic drugs before, but they’re no stranger to controversy. These are medications that contain diphenhydramine like Benadryl and the sleep aid Sominex, and drugs to treat everything from incontinence to depression.

Turns out folks who took these drugs every day for at least three years saw their risk of dementia shoot through the roof. And it didn’t take very high doses to make their brains unravel.

Just 4 mg. a day of Benadryl is enough to increase your risk of dementia — of course, if you follow the dosing instructions, you could be taking 60 to 70 times that amount.

Researchers are claiming that they can’t PROVE these medications cause dementia. But if you ask me, medical researchers are like turtles — they frighten easily and they always cover their backs.

Here’s the truth. These folks weren’t studying the link between anticholinergic drugs and dementia by accident. We’ve known for 40 years that people with Alzheimer’s disease have a massive shortage of acetylcholine, a key neurotransmitter.

And, of course, anticholinergic drugs prevent acetylcholine from doing its job. The link between anticholinergic drugs and Alzheimer’s is so obvious you’d have to bury your head in the sand to miss it.

But, unfortunately, our government spends more time in the sand than a hermit crab.

It’s no secret that diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in drugs like Benadryl and Sominex, has been linked to memory lapses, confusion and even potentially deadly falls. But the problem is, our government routinely approves drugs without EVER requiring Big Pharma to study the long-term effects.

So they send drugs out to market without ever knowing whether that brain fog you’re feeling will be gone in a few hours — or whether it’s going to be a permanent companion.

Researchers are claiming that the damage from anticholinergic drugs can’t be reversed once you stop taking the pills — but that’s no reason to keep making it worse. Drugs like Benadryl and Sominex aren’t exactly heart pills — nobody NEEDS to take them and you can stop taking them today. Replace them with natural sleep aids like melatonin or allergy fighters like butterbur.

You won’t just be protecting your brain — you’ll be giving yourself peace of mind.

Sources:

Over-the-counter sleep aids linked to dementia

(medicalnewstoday.com)