Posted on 05/13/2008 7:37:38 PM PDT by neverdem
AP
(CHICAGO) — Results from a large government experiment are dimming hopes that two common painkillers can prevent Alzheimer's disease or slow mental decline in older people.
The arthritis drug Celebrex and the over-the-counter painkiller Aleve showed no benefit on thinking skills, new findings show. Earlier results from the same research showed the two drugs didn't prevent Alzheimer's, at least in the short term.
The experiment was halted several years early in 2004 when heart risks turned up in a separate study on Celebrex. Researchers also had noticed more heart attacks and strokes in the people taking Aleve in the Alzheimer's prevention study.
Despite the study's early end, there was still enough data to hint at how the drugs act on thinking and memory. The findings were posted online Monday and will appear in July's Archives of Neurology.
"These were not the results we were hoping for," said co-author Barbara Martin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We designed this study hoping we would see a protective effect of these drugs."
Researchers hope to continue monitoring the participants to see if they find any delayed benefit.
Scientists have speculated that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, such as Aleve and Celebrex, might prevent Alzheimer's by reducing inflammation in the brain or by other means.
"The drugs have several effects in the brain and the different effects could be important at different stages in the illness," said study co-author Dr. John Breitner of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Previous studies had found that people who took the drugs ran a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's. But those were observational studies, meaning they observed people's behavior and health. The people who took the pills may have had other healthy habits that lowered their risk...
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Well,ya get old,then ya die.
I was prescribed celebrex for an arthritic hip and I found it to be completely usless or that as well.
Try green tea capsules (at least two per day). Works like a champ.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I take alfalfa pills & they seem to work.
I thought the point of them was to reduce or prevent it over the long term like 30 or 40 years?
I sometimes take it for back pain. I had back surgery 7 years ago. I have to take naprocyn on a full stomach, and I often will take a couple of antacids with it. Sometimes I'll even take an acid reducer like Pepcid AC with it too.
I like Mrs. Kerrys gin and white raisins..... after 25 or so of those my pain is gone
At least you're not using narcotics.
I have only taken naproxen sodium (Aleve) a few times. I didn’t have any problem with it but taking it on full stomach is a good idea. I didn’t think it worked any better than ibuprofen my usual pain/headache remedy.
Naproxen tends to work better after a couple of days. I find that if I have taken it recently, it works sooner than if it's been awhile. The main reason I will take it is that it lasts longer than ibuprofen. It seems to be the strongest pain reliever I can get without getting a prescripton filled, and it is much cheaper than the prescription NSAIDs I took before I had surgery.
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