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My grand mother says drink tea and you'll won't need any meds. She lived to 96 and never take any prescription drugs in her life she can't swallow meds and all she does is drink leaf teas everyday and eats very little. The food portion she eats is like the same as a 5 year old.
Please note what Carol Coupland, M.D., and the lead author in the study stated: "this is an observational study so no firm conclusions can be drawn about whether these anticholinergic drugs cause dementia."
So we have an observational study from which no firm conclusions can be drawn, and many chime in with their anecdotal stories, and next thing you know all types of erroneous conclusions are being drawn.
Wait -- isn't diphenhydramine (Benadryl) on the "Avoid" list? I'm confused.
From the article:
Quote:
The researchers found no significant increases in dementia risk associated with antihistamines, skeletal muscle relaxants, gastrointestinal antispasmodics, antiarrhythmics, or antimuscarinic bronchodilators, according to the data, but associations were found among other classes of anticholinergic drugs.
That would be the newer generation of antihistamines...The old ones on the Beer's list are very bad
I'm not a senior, but I have to take large doses of antihistamines daily to function because I have a mast cell disorder. So I was glad to see that antihistamines don't increase the risk of dementia, at least according to this study, because I will be taking them for the rest of my life, both first and second generation antihistamines.
OK, I think I've figured out the apparent contradiction regarding antihistamines. First-generation antihistamines, including diphenhydramine (Benadryl), are to be avoided by older people, according to the Beers list.
The study that this thread refers to found no association between antihistamines and an increased risk of dementia. That simply means that in this particular study, they found no association. It does not mean that the Beers list is wrong, nor does it mean that all antihistamines are now OK for all older people.
I take Benadryl every night to help me sleep. This was recommended to me by my doctor as a substitute for lorazepam, which I had been taking for a number of years. My doctor wanted me to stop taking lorazepam as it's very bad for older people (it's on the Beers list), and she recommended Benadryl instead.
Maybe she was unaware that Benadryl is also on the Beers list, or maybe she figured Benadryl would be less harmful to me. In any event, at my next scheduled appointment I'll bring it up for discussion with her.
I think that's the take-away from this study: if you're an older person taking one or more of these medications, talk about it with your doctor.
That would be the newer generation of antihistamines...The old ones on the Beer's list are very bad
"very bad" is an almost worthless phrase. what does that mean? they certainly aren't contraindicated by virtue of being on the list. but sometimes added caution might be warranted or give a prescriber pause and possibly think about a different agent if one is available especially if the patient is accumulating several of these drugs in their regimen. to go up to a doc and say, hey this is a beers drug, please discontinue it, without any consideration of the entire picture, would get you laughed at.
"very bad" is an almost worthless phrase. what does that mean? they certainly aren't contraindicated by virtue of being on the list. but sometimes added caution might be warranted or give a prescriber pause and possibly think about a different agent if one is available especially if the patient is accumulating several of these drugs in their regimen. to go up to a doc and say, hey this is a beers drug, please discontinue it, without any consideration of the entire picture, would get you laughed at.
To go a bit farther the Beers list, as noted, is developed through what is identified as using the Delphi method; that is through discussions with a group of stakeholders. Confirmation bias is an inherent problem among groups of like minded individuals. I would prefer to base something as important as medication choices on much more objective criteria.
No one knows what the causes of Azlheimer's could be. This article was a preliminary study. All I ask is that you think about the pluses amdnd minuses of what you take
I'm going to go ahead and guess the "pluses" of antidepressants and antipsychotics and antiepileptics outweigh the "minuses" for most people. I know I'd vote for "quality of life now" over "possible risk later."
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