– Can certain medications increase the risk of dementia? A current study has now come to the conclusion: Yes – and in some cases even significantly.
They belong in thousands of people’s suitcases or in the bathroom pharmacy. Laxative. But be careful – as a current study claims to have found out, taking such drugs can even significantly increase the risk of developing dementia. This data goes back to the investigations of the University of Cambridge and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Scientists worked together here for a total of ten years. Subjects who were between 40 and 65 years old at the beginning of the study were examined.
Opinion poll
whole decade
The state of health was then analyzed and documented in more detail over an entire decade. The conclusion of the experts at the end – quite interesting. In the course of the ten years observed, around 1.3 percent of the test subjects who regularly took laxatives developed dementia. In contrast, the proportion of participants who had dementia but did not use laxatives was only 0.4 percent.
If you take all other risk factors into account – such as previous and concomitant diseases as well as genetic factors – there is an increased risk of dementia of 50 percent if laxatives are taken regularly. The experts also noted that the risk of dementia in general and of what is known as vascular dementia increases, but not the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. This effect has meanwhile been observed particularly frequently when taking osmotic laxatives. With these preparations, water is drawn into the intestines, thereby diluting the stool.
The suspicion here: laxatives can weaken the intestinal barrier. Afterwards, toxins and inflammatory messengers have an easier time getting from the intestine into the bloodstream. Previous studies have also revealed that osmotically effective laxatives can change the intestinal microbiome. This then also results in a change in the production of messenger substances in the intestine. This incident can then possibly also influence the brain via the gut-brain axis.
For the sake of transparency, however, it should also be said at this point: In order to be able to prove beyond any doubt that the use of laxatives is biologically linked to increasing the risk of developing dementia, further targeted clinical studies are urgently needed. However, Peter Berlit, Secretary General of the German Society for Neurology, has already sent a clear message to “Scinexx”: “Nevertheless, in view of the result, we advise caution when using laxatives, especially given the fact that dementia diseases are on the increase”. Loud According to the latest statistics and evaluations, around 20 percent of the general population use laxatives regularly, but the figure is around 70 percent in nursing and retirement homes.