IT SEEMS almost too good to be true. Regularly taking a simple
over-the-counter drug can stave off the crippling mental illness Alzheimer’s
disease.
A major study of thousands of elderly patients in the Netherlands has shown
that taking an average of just two anti-inflammatory pills a week reduces a
person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 80 per cent. Yet a decade after the
first hints that drugs like the common painkiller ibuprofen could fend off the
disease, middle-aged people are not being encouraged to take the pills
regularly.
The reason is that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen
cause serious…
