Antibiotics, antiviral and anti -inflammatory drugs, as well as vaccinations, are linked to a reduced risk of dementia, according to research, led by Cambridge and Exeter Universities, published in Alzheimer’s and Dmentia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions “

The researchers examined health data from 14 studies that used medical records of more than 130 million people and one million cases of dementia. Although they found a lack of cohesion between studies in identifying individual drugs that affect the risk dementia.

An unexpected finding of the study was the association between antibiotic, antiviral drugs and vaccines and reduced risk of dementia. As they note, this finding argues the hypothesis that the common spring may be triggered by viral or bacterial infections. In addition, it was recently identified that the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

Anti -inflammatory, such as ibuprofen, were also found to be associated with reduced risk. Inflammation is increasingly considered to contribute significantly to a wide range of diseases and its role in dementia is supported by the fact that some genes that increase the risk of dementia are part of inflammatory pathways.

See the link with the scientific publication here