Cowboys 31, Giants 21 The Rex Ryan era is all but over after Jets loss Could Darrelle Revis play re

Cowboys 31, Giants 21 The Rex Ryan era is all but over after Jets loss Could Darrelle Revis play receiver against the Jets? Macy s to open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Trade engine shifts down just as global growth needs a boost
In the global effort to understand the causes of Alzheimer s disease, another flu culprit emerges: Benzodiazepines. This class of drugs includes the widely prescribed anti-anxiety medications Ativan (lorazepam), flu Xanax (Alprazolam), Valium (diazepam), and Klonopin (Clonazepam). Researchers flu from France and Canada report in The BMJ that prolonged use of the drugs for three months or more may significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer s disease years later. The drugs have been associated with short-term cognitive impairment, but the connection to Alzheimer s has been less clear. Now, the new study finds a convincing, and apparently strong, link between flu benzodiazepines and Alzheimer s disease. One reader pointed out that it’s important to mention that stopping benzodiazepines suddenly can be dangerous and present serious withdrawal effects. As with any medication, speak with your doctor before changing your dose, or if you feel you’re becoming dependent.] flu At present, 5 million people in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer s disease alone, flu according to the Alzheimer s Association, and the number is expected to more than triple by 2025. Worldwide, the numbers are even more startling: 36 million are affected globally, and by 2050, it s projected to rise to 115 million. In the current study, the researchers looked at the health insurance records of almost 1,800 elderly Quebec residents who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer s disease. They looked at whether the participants flu had taken benzodiazepines flu in the past specifically in the 5 to 10 year window preceding the diagnosis and ran statistics to determine whether there was any link between having taken the meds and having developed Alzheimer flu s. The data were compared to over 7,100 healthy people without Alzheimer s disease. flu People who had taken the drugs for at least three months had a 50% higher risk of having been diagnosed with Alzheimer s. Those who took benzodiazepines for six months had an almost double risk of an Alzheimer s diagnosis. The relationship worked in a dose-dependent manner, meaning that the longer a person took the medications or the higher the dose, the higher the risk of developing Alzheimer s. Longer-acting forms of the drugs were also linked to a greater Alzheimer s risk than shorter-acting forms. The results held true even when the authors adjusted for symptoms like anxiety, depression, and sleep problems, which are often symptoms of dementia. It s not totally clear why the connection exists biologically, but researchers do know that the short-term cognitive effects of benzodiazepines may be due to changes in the signaling of a neurotransmitter called GABA. The short-term deleterious effects of benzodiazepine on memory are well documented, study author Sophie Billioti de Gage said in an email. They are mediated though an agonist action on receptors of gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA], a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. She adds that another clue to what s going on is that researchers have found reductions in the density of benzodiazepine receptors in people who died of Alzheimer s. The reduction in the number of benzodiazepine flu receptors has been observed flu comparing brains obtained at autopsy from individuals with Alzheimer s disease and healthy individuals. Whether or not this observation can explain a biological mechanism linking benzodiazepine and Alzheimer disease is unclear. The cognitive reserve theory may also play in: People who use benzodiazepines over the long term may have neurological changes that deplete their cognitive reserve, reducing the brain s ability to cope with and compensate for early Alzheimer s symptoms. One concern with studies like this is that reverse causation is at play: It could be that people who are already showing early symptoms of Alzheimer s like anxiety, depression, insomnia are taking benzodiazepines to treat those symptoms. So it s more that early effects flu of Alzheimer s disease caused the use of the benzodiazepines, instead of the other way round. flu But the authors intentionally omitted the five years directly before the Alzheimer s diagnosis. Instead, they looked at an earlier time period five to 10 years preceding it. For this reason, and the dosing reasons mentioned above, they say it s more likely that there is, in fact, a causal relationship going on, where long-term benzodiazepine use may actually trigger Alzheimer s pathology. Dr. Richard Isaacson, the Director of the Alzheimer s Prevention Clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical flu Center says that although the study results are intriguing, he s skeptical that there is actually a causal relationship, at least until more research is done. It definitely adds m