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Common Pharmaceuticals Destroy Your Brain

Hawaii Political Info introduction: Do you take or have you taken Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM, Unisom, Paxil, Detrol, Demerol, and Elavil? Does anyone in your family or among your friends have dementia? Read about how certain pharmaceuticals can cause long term brain impairment.

Natural Society

By Christina Sarich

September 22, 2014

You wouldn’t think that taking a little pain pill would cause long term cognitive impairment, but that’s just one of the commonly prescribed (or even OTC) pharmaceutical medications which were studied in a six-year test to see what kind of neurological damage was caused. Unfortunately, the research found that these pharmaceuticals, commonly taken for a variety of common medical conditions including insomnia, allergies, or incontinence, cause long-term damage to the brain. The findings point to a class of drugs called anticholinergics, which block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter.

“We found that taking one anticholinergic significantly increased an individual’s risk of developing mild cognitive impairment and taking two of these drugs doubled this risk. This is very significant in a population – African-Americans – already known to be at high risk for developing cognitive impairment,” said Noll Campbell, PharmD, first author of the study.

The surprising thing is that many of the drugs are commonly used, brands like Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM, and Unisom are included in the anticholinergic drug list, but so are Paxil, Detrol, Demerol, and Elavil – antidepressant medications. Sure it's great if you don’t feel depressed anymore, but not if it is because the drugs are just killing the brain cells that might ordinarily register sadness or anxiety.

Read more . . .