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Chocolate Lowers Risk of Preeclampsia

Ibuprofen Lowers Risk of Alzheimer’s

People who took the painkiller ibuprofen for more than five years had a 40 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They also found that certain other medicines in the same class, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, reduced the risk of developing the illness by 25 percent.

"Some of these medications taken long-term decrease the risk of Alzheimer's disease, but it's very dependent on the exact drugs used. It doesn't appear that all NSAIDs decrease the risk at the same rate," Dr. Steven Vlad of Boston University School of Medicine, whose study appears in the journal Neurology, said in a statement.

The study involved more than 49,000 U.S. veterans aged 55 and older who developed Alzheimer's and nearly 200,000 who had no form of dementia. The researchers looked at more than five years of prescription data from the U.S. Veterans Affairs health care system, and at several different NSAIDs.

They found those who were prescribed ibuprofen for more than five years were 40 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those who did not. The longer they used ibuprofen — sold under many brand names, including Motrin and Advil — the lower their risk.

The study also found that while some NSAIDs, such as indomethacin, were associated with lower risks of Alzheimer's, other drugs in the class, such as Pfizer Inc's celecoxib, or Celebrex, were not.

Alzheimer's disease has been linked with inflammation, and researchers believe that anti-inflammatory drugs might help delay onset of the disease.

"What's new here is that where other studies have shown that NSAIDs as a class are associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, we have shown that the risk varies by the individual drug," Vlad said by e-mail.

Despite the benefits, Vlad does not recommend that people start taking ibuprofen in the hopes of staving off Alzheimer's disease.

"All NSAIDs have significant risks including ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, kidney dysfunction, elevated blood pressure and, certainly in the case of COX-II inhibitors like (Merck Inc's withdrawn drug) Vioxx, a cardiovascular risk," he said.

Alzheimer's disease has no cure and few effective treatments.

[Copyright: Reuters]

Chocolate Lowers Risk of Preeclampsia

Women who eat chocolate are at decreased risk of developing preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous complication of pregnancy, a Yale study suggests.

The conclusions are reported in the current issue of the journal Epidemiology.

A team headed by Elizabeth Triche of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology wanted to see if chocolate, particularly dark chocolate which had been previously linked to improved cardiovascular health, might also offer protection to pregnant mothers against preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a disorder characterized by dangerously high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Pregnant women who suffer from the condition sometimes complain of swelling, sudden weight gain, headaches and vision problems.

The study looked at self-reported chocolate consumption and also at levels of a byproduct of chocolate consumption, called theobromine, in the cord blood of pregnant women. Although the study did not distinguish between dark and other kinds of chocolate, dark chocolate has higher levels of theobromine.

The study of 1,681 women showed that those who reported chocolate consumption of more than five servings a week had a lower risk of developing preeclampsia. Among the 1,346 women with cord blood data available, those with higher theobromine levels had significantly lower risk of developing preeclampsia than those who had low levels of theobromine.

Results were particularly dramatic for women with the highest levels of theobromine. Women who had levels in the top quartile for theobromine were nearly 70 percent less likely to develop preeclampsia than women in the lowest quartile for theobromine. Having the theobromine data available as a more objective measure of chocolate consumption was a strength of the study, Triche said.

Researchers have speculated that the presence of anti-oxidants called flavonoids in dark chocolate may confer cardiovascular benefits.

“This looks promising, but we need to do more research into how much and what type of chocolate is the most beneficial," Triche said.

Triche also cautioned that the study results do not mean pregnant women can eat all the chocolate they want. Excess consumption of all sweets can lead to weight gain and other health problems, she noted.

[Citation: Epidemiology Vol. 19: 459-464 (May 2008)]