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American Morning

Aspirin May Help Prevent Alzheimer's

Aired September 24, 2002 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: "House Call" right now. Aspirin has been called the wonder drug because of its many uses, and now there is new evidence suggesting that it is among a class of drugs that actually may help, possibly even prevent Alzheimer's.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta here in our "House Call" this morning in New York City -- good to see you, my friend.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

HEMMER: What does the study say, then?

GUPTA: Well, I tell you, aspirin, first of all -- this has been called the wonder drug, and for a lot of good reasons. I recommend it to a lot of my patients for all sorts of things. Thinning the blood, preventing stroke, heart attacks, possibly reducing the risk of colon cancer and now, as you say, Bill, possibly also preventing Alzheimer's disease.

What they did -- and we have heard about this before, this isn't brand new stuff, but it's starting to become more and more obvious. They looked at over 3,000 people in Utah, people who were either near dementia or actually developed signs of dementia, early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and they actually looked at what their use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meditations are. That is like ibuprofen, Advil, you know it like that, those sorts of names, or aspirin, and they found that people who actually took those medications long-term, that is longer than two years, four times a week, actually had a 45 percent risk reduction of Alzheimer's disease. Actually had some prevention by using these medications.

HEMMER: I have heard about aspirin for heart conditions in the past. We have known that for quite a while, one baby aspirin a day. As it relates to Alzheimer's, how does this work within the body?

GUPTA: Well, there's a couple of prevailing theories on that, and let me just say first of all that not everyone is on board with this particular -- there are some risks to taking these medications, and I say that early on because this isn't a medication that people necessarily want to go out and start taking right away, there is some risk of GI bleeding and things like that.

But there are a couple of theories. One is that Alzheimer's disease is actually caused by an inflammatory process in the brain. Simply put, if you take an anti-inflammatory, you might actually reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. There is another more sort of sciencey (ph), if you will, Bill, theory about this as well -- I think we have an animation to sort of show this -- but basically, when you have Alzheimer's disease, you actually have a couple of enzymes in the brain that actually cause a break down of a couple proteins. Eventually, when that protein is split, as you see there, it actually forms something called amaloid plaque. The name is not that important, but imagine this, Bill, actually plaques of material in the brain disrupting some activity when it comes to neuronal transmission, things like that, possibly even leading to cell death. Anti-inflammatory medications are actually supposed to break that process down, not let it occur.

HEMMER: I can see some people watching this segment and saying, OK, there is a new study, I need to start taking aspirin, if, indeed I am getting up into that age, 55, 60, 65. Is that recommended?

GUPTA: Well, aspirin is recommended for a lot of different reasons. They don't have enough evident to say that it is recommended for this reason as of yet. I think that it might be coming. I think that it may be coming when you have a strong family history, or if somebody in your family has had Alzheimer's before, they may say, listen, you have no signs of dementia, you have no problems at all, maybe a little memory loss like everyone does from time to time, but start taking your aspirin now, so that you will have it in place, you will have the anti-inflammatory mechanisms in place, stave off the Alzheimer's later on.

HEMMER: Quickly, give me some warning signs. What do we look for when Alzheimer's may be in the process of setting in.

GUPTA: Well, you know, everyone jokes about this, people always say, oh, you know, I think I'm developing Alzheimer's -- I say it myself. But there are some pretty significant warning signs. We are talking about profound memory loss here, and memory loss -- not just forgetting recent appointments, things like that, but forgetting things that perhaps someone just told you. There's a long list there Bill, but let me just tell you that when it starts interfering with your activities of daily living, when you are unable to sort of conduct -- dress yourself, things like that, you can't remember where you just placed things, they may be some early warning signs as well.

There is not a blood test for this. You have got to look at the clinical sort of test for this, see your doctor about it, possibly get your aspirin early.

HEMMER: And pay attention. I don't have any memory loss, do I? In our conversations? Just about every three minutes.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: It is not Alzheimer's, it is ADD, my friend. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 24, 2002 - 08:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: "House Call" right now. Aspirin has been called the wonder drug because of its many uses, and now there is new evidence suggesting that it is among a class of drugs that actually may help, possibly even prevent Alzheimer's.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta here in our "House Call" this morning in New York City -- good to see you, my friend.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

HEMMER: What does the study say, then?

GUPTA: Well, I tell you, aspirin, first of all -- this has been called the wonder drug, and for a lot of good reasons. I recommend it to a lot of my patients for all sorts of things. Thinning the blood, preventing stroke, heart attacks, possibly reducing the risk of colon cancer and now, as you say, Bill, possibly also preventing Alzheimer's disease.

What they did -- and we have heard about this before, this isn't brand new stuff, but it's starting to become more and more obvious. They looked at over 3,000 people in Utah, people who were either near dementia or actually developed signs of dementia, early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and they actually looked at what their use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meditations are. That is like ibuprofen, Advil, you know it like that, those sorts of names, or aspirin, and they found that people who actually took those medications long-term, that is longer than two years, four times a week, actually had a 45 percent risk reduction of Alzheimer's disease. Actually had some prevention by using these medications.

HEMMER: I have heard about aspirin for heart conditions in the past. We have known that for quite a while, one baby aspirin a day. As it relates to Alzheimer's, how does this work within the body?

GUPTA: Well, there's a couple of prevailing theories on that, and let me just say first of all that not everyone is on board with this particular -- there are some risks to taking these medications, and I say that early on because this isn't a medication that people necessarily want to go out and start taking right away, there is some risk of GI bleeding and things like that.

But there are a couple of theories. One is that Alzheimer's disease is actually caused by an inflammatory process in the brain. Simply put, if you take an anti-inflammatory, you might actually reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. There is another more sort of sciencey (ph), if you will, Bill, theory about this as well -- I think we have an animation to sort of show this -- but basically, when you have Alzheimer's disease, you actually have a couple of enzymes in the brain that actually cause a break down of a couple proteins. Eventually, when that protein is split, as you see there, it actually forms something called amaloid plaque. The name is not that important, but imagine this, Bill, actually plaques of material in the brain disrupting some activity when it comes to neuronal transmission, things like that, possibly even leading to cell death. Anti-inflammatory medications are actually supposed to break that process down, not let it occur.

HEMMER: I can see some people watching this segment and saying, OK, there is a new study, I need to start taking aspirin, if, indeed I am getting up into that age, 55, 60, 65. Is that recommended?

GUPTA: Well, aspirin is recommended for a lot of different reasons. They don't have enough evident to say that it is recommended for this reason as of yet. I think that it might be coming. I think that it may be coming when you have a strong family history, or if somebody in your family has had Alzheimer's before, they may say, listen, you have no signs of dementia, you have no problems at all, maybe a little memory loss like everyone does from time to time, but start taking your aspirin now, so that you will have it in place, you will have the anti-inflammatory mechanisms in place, stave off the Alzheimer's later on.

HEMMER: Quickly, give me some warning signs. What do we look for when Alzheimer's may be in the process of setting in.

GUPTA: Well, you know, everyone jokes about this, people always say, oh, you know, I think I'm developing Alzheimer's -- I say it myself. But there are some pretty significant warning signs. We are talking about profound memory loss here, and memory loss -- not just forgetting recent appointments, things like that, but forgetting things that perhaps someone just told you. There's a long list there Bill, but let me just tell you that when it starts interfering with your activities of daily living, when you are unable to sort of conduct -- dress yourself, things like that, you can't remember where you just placed things, they may be some early warning signs as well.

There is not a blood test for this. You have got to look at the clinical sort of test for this, see your doctor about it, possibly get your aspirin early.

HEMMER: And pay attention. I don't have any memory loss, do I? In our conversations? Just about every three minutes.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: It is not Alzheimer's, it is ADD, my friend. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com