Some Blood Pressure Medicines Benefit the Brain

A category of blood pressure medicines called ACE inhibitors may be good for the brain as well as the circulatory system. These medicines originated from a discovery in Brazil decades ago. Researchers found that the bite of the poisonous jararaca snake made blood pressure plummet. That led to the development of the first ACE inhibitor, captopril. There are now at least 10 different ACE inhibitors prescribed in the U.S. Not all, however, are beneficial in reducing the risk of dementia.

Scientists at Wake Forest University found that ACE inhibitors that cross the blood-brain barrier lowered the likelihood of cognitive decline 65 percent each year. These include captopril, fosinopril, lisinopril, perindopril, ramipril and trandolapril. But people who were taking ACE inhibitor medications that don't get into the brain actually had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia over the three-year study. Those include benazepril, enalapril, moexipril and quinapril. The investigators suggest a randomized controlled trial to test these findings. ACE inhibitors have already been shown to be helpful in controlling blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart failure and type 2 diabetes.

[Archives of Internal Medicine,  July 13, 2009]
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