Multiple Meds? How to Protect Your Brain from the Perils of Polypharmacy

By Deane Alban

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

Prescription drugs cause over 100,000 deaths per year and cause another 1.5 million people to experience side effects so severe they must be hospitalized.

You may be shocked to learn that according to the United States FDA, adverse drug reactions are now the fourth leading cause of death in the US. (1) In the United Kingdom, pharmaceutical drugs pose nearly double the risk of death than motorcycle accidents on UK roads. (2)

This is in part due to the problem of polypharmacy — the taking of several drugs at once that interact in negative and sometimes unexpected ways. Every medication carries the risk of side effects. When more than one drug at a time is taken, the risks increase exponentially. When you consider that the average 65-year-old takes 5 medications, you can imagine how widespread the problem of polypharmacy is.

Medications and Your Brain

Armon Neel is a board-certified geriatric pharmacist who has devoted his career to guiding health professionals and older adults in the appropriate use of medication. He writes AARP’s Ask the Pharmacist column.

In his book Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?, he contends that as many as 3 out of 4 Alzheimer’s cases could be caused by drug interactions. This is a stunning indictment!

Many medications can lead to a false-positive diagnosis for dementia or Alzheimer’s. One way common mechanism for this is the reduction in the brain’s level of acetylcholine, the primary neurotransmitter involved with memory and learning. This can lead to symptoms that resemble dementia including mental confusion, delirium, blurred vision, memory loss, and hallucinations.

In reality, “any symptom in an elderly patient should be considered a drug side effect until proven otherwise”, according to the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.

Armon Neel also points out that polypharmacy becomes a greater concern as you grow older. Not only are seniors taking more medications, but the ones they take aren’t handled by the body as well as when they were young. When multiple prescriptions are taken, the livers and kidneys no longer work as efficiently and have a harder time breaking down and eliminating drugs from the system. This is why some people who have been on a drug for years might suddenly find it causes side effects as they age.

Avoid the “Anti-” Drugs

Here are three of the worst-offending categories of drugs to watch out for:

• If you take a drug that starts with “anti”, such as antihistamines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, antibiotics, antispasmodics, or antihypertensives, it’s likely that it will affect your acetylcholine levels, and your brain function.
• Sleeping pills are notorious for causing memory loss. Ambien so commonly induces memory loss that some have coined it “the amnesia drug”. There are better ways to improve your sleep!
• Probably the single worst group of drugs for your brain is statin drugs, which are used to lower cholesterol levels. These drugs cause memory loss so frequently that they are now required to state they can cause memory loss on the label.

Statins: The Worst Offender?

Another frightening side effect of statins is that they can lead to diabetes. Dr. Stephen Sinatra, founder of Heart MD Institute, cites the alarming statistic that women who take these medications have a 48% greater risk of becoming diabetic. Moreover, we’ve been brainwashed to believe that low cholesterol levels equal a healthy heart but this is now known to not be true.

Dr. Duane Graveline, a medical doctor and NASA astronaut (pictured), wrote an eye-opening account of the dangers of one popular statin drug, Lipitor, in his book Lipitor – Thief of Memory. He experienced two bouts of serious memory loss which were diagnosed as transient global amnesia (TGA). Ultimately, this was traced to his taking the statin drug Lipitor.

Dr. Graveline is now on another mission — to warn others of the perils of cholesterol-lowering drugs. You can find over 250 articles on cholesterol, statin drugs, and their side effects on his website SpaceDoc.com. Alternatively, you can find more information on cholesterol in Wake Up World’s health>cholesterol archive.

Steps to Take if You’re on Multiple Meds

Fortunately, drug-induced dementia can usually be reversed just by stopping the offending medication. So if you take medications and suspect they might be causing cognitive problems, here are some steps Armon Neel recommends you can take:

• Take inventory of what you are taking. Write down every medication, dosage, and when you started taking it.
• Talk to your doctor about what you are taking, how much you are taking, and why you are taking it. If you have more than one physician, have this conversation with each. If you are not satisfied that your doctor is treating this issue seriously, find another one who will.
• Ask if there are any non-drug approaches you can take instead. Find out the consequences of stopping any medication. If there are any medications that can be eliminated, discuss a plan for getting off them and follow the plan.
• You should always get all your medications filled by the same pharmacy. Talk to your pharmacist about your regime to make sure there are no known interactions.
• Read Are Your Prescriptions Killing You? Reviewers on Amazon call it “a life saver”.

If you aren’t sure if your medications are causing cognitive problems, please check out our list of the top 20 medications that can cause memory loss. Keep in mind that drugs don’t have to be prescription medications to cause problems. Sometimes adding an over-the-counter treatment to the mix can be dangerous as well.

Previous articles by Deane:

• Exposed: Why Cholesterol Doesn’t Cause Heart Disease
• Experience the Brain Benefits of Do-It-Yourself Biofeedback
• Advantame – the “New & Improved” Artificial Sweetener, Approved by FDA
• 5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting Enough Vitamin D.. and What You Can Do About It
• Five Common Food Additives That Can Damage Your Brain
• The Alarming Truth About Supermarket Meat
• Can’t Get the Hang of Meditation? Try This Instead
• Stress, Telomeres, and the Secret to Prevent Aging
• 20 Common Medications That Can Cause Memory Loss
• 5 Common Food Additives That Are Toxic to Your Brain
• The ABCs of Vitamins for Memory and Brain Health

About the author:

Deane Alban holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and has taught and written on a wide variety of natural health topics for over 20 years. Her current focus is helping people overcome brain fog, “senior moments”, and other signs of mental decline now, and preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia in the future.

The human brain is designed to last a lifetime, but modern life takes a greater toll on the brain than most people realize. Deane teaches the best ways to keep your brain healthy and stay mentally sharp for life at her website  BeBrainFit.com.