Long-term use of Ibuprofen, the medication found in Advil and Motrin, was shown to decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Dementia.

Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine found a 40% reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Dementia in people who used Ibuprofen for more than five years. Their findings were recently published in the medical journal, Neurology on May 6th, 2008.

Doctors studied patients in the Veteran’s Administration(VA) Health Care System who had developed Alzheimer’s Dementia between 1998 and 2005. They identified 49,349 patients in whom Alzheimer’s developed and compared them with a control group of 196,850 people in the VA system.

Researches compared the different anti-inflammatory drugs Ibuprofen, Naprosyn, Indocin, Clinoril, Voltaren and Celebrex. Ibuprofen was associated with the largest reduction in Alzheimer’s Disease. Use of Celebrex and Naprosyn did not reduce Alzheimer’s Disease risk.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) including Ibuprofen most likely provide protection against the development of Alzheimer’s by inhibiting the production of the protein that deposits in the brain causing Alzheimer’s.

October 17, 2008