New research suggests that people who take benzodiazepines, a.k.a. prescription drugs like Xanax and Valium, are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.
A study published in The BMJ (formerly The British Medical Journal) this week found a link between anti-anxiety and sleeping drugs and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers studied the medication history of 1,796 elderly people with Alzheimer's, along with 7,184 controls who weren't diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and found that use of benzodiazepines increased the participants' Alzheimer's risk by as much as 51 percent.
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The good news, though, is that the study didn't find a link between Alzheimer's risk and participants who took benzodiazepines for less than three months, which is how long many of the prescriptions are used. However, long-term use of the prescriptions may have a lasting effect on your memory, so it's important to discuss your family's medical history and potential risks when starting a new medication.
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