This Pill Causes Dementia
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Drug interactions can cause more complex side effects than the side effects of a single drug, and can even contribute to dementia. Join me as I interview Hal Cranmer, owner of several assisted living homes, and Dr. Roshani Sanghani, board-certified endocrinologist, to discuss the side effects of multiple medications.
Assisted Living Home:
https://aparadiseforparents.com/
Epocrates:
Taking the following drugs for an extended period of time may potentially increase your risk for dementia.
1. Drugs that block acetylcholine
This includes Benadryl, certain drugs for depression, and drugs that treat overactive bladder.
2. Benzodiazepine
Drugs such as Valium and Xanax treat anxiety, insomnia, and seizures, affecting the central nervous system and brain.
3. PPIs
Proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec and Nexium, that treat indigestion and heartburn may increase the risk of cognitive decline.
4. Opioids
Morphine, oxycodone, and other opioids that sedate the brain significantly affect cognitive function and may lead to dementia.
Hal Cranmer owns several assisted living homes and sees first-hand the consequences of giving someone several drugs at once. Many residents in assisted living homes are on 20 to 30 medications.
In Hal’s facilities, he focuses on providing his residents with a healthy diet and eliminating sugar and ultra-processed foods. Many of Hal’s residents have been able to get off their medication.
Multiple medications often involve multiple doctors with multiple viewpoints. Each doctor focuses only on specific parts and functions of the body rather than the body as a whole.
Adverse drug reactions are unexpected side effects directly caused by drugs. Around 90% are underreported. Adverse drug reactions are responsible for 10% of all hospital visits and are the 4th leading cause of death.
Dr. Roshani Sanghani, a board-certified endocrinologist, uses epocrates.com to help keep track of drug interactions. She points out the problem of specialists focusing on and prescribing treatment for one body part and not considering the patients’ other medications.
The biggest contributor to chronic disease is diet. Medications are often prescribed to treat the symptoms caused by consuming ultra-processed foods. A healthy diet can turn this cycle around.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Most doctors know the side effects from taking medication. But what I don't think hardly any doctors |
| 0:05.2 | really understand is the side effects from taking multiple drugs, the interaction between certain |
| 0:11.0 | drugs. Let's talk about some really common medications that can actually cause dementia, |
| 0:16.3 | or at least put you at a major risk for getting dementia. From my viewpoint, I would get really upset if I got |
| 0:23.2 | a side effect, especially dementia, from another medication. Let's go through common drugs |
| 0:28.6 | that have a known sign effect of dementia. First category of drugs are those that block or |
| 0:34.4 | inhibit acetylcholine. That's a neural transmitter. These drugs include Benadryl, |
| 0:39.7 | which is anihistamine, certain drugs for depression, as well as drugs that treat an overactive |
| 0:45.6 | bladder. If someone's on these for a prolonged period of time, the risk for dementia goes way up. |
| 0:50.6 | Next one is something called benzodiazepine. This drug treats anxiety, insomnia, |
| 0:57.3 | and seizures. We're talking about Valium and Xanax. Apparently this drug affects the central |
| 1:02.0 | nervous system, aka your brain, and it can greatly increase the risk of getting dementia. Then we |
| 1:06.6 | have something called PPI's, proton pump inhibitors. Those medications treat indigestion, heartburn |
| 1:14.1 | like prilosac and nexium. They can increase the risk of cognitive decline. Then the last one, |
| 1:21.4 | which is a big one, is opioids, like morphine or oxycodone. Anything that creates sedation on the brain, |
| 1:28.4 | like when you go in for surgery and they give you certain anesthetics, that can greatly affect your cognitive function |
| 1:33.0 | leading to dementia. There's also the side effects from drug interactions. And unfortunately, |
| 1:38.9 | as people get older and eventually end up in an assistant living home or a nursing home, boy, |
| 1:43.4 | they just are just given |
| 1:44.7 | medications routinely. In fact, let's interview this gentleman that owns several assisted |
| 1:50.7 | living homes and see what he has to say. We have a whole lot of people that come with between 20 |
| 1:55.9 | and 30 medications each. Our record is 54. We have a guy who had 54 medications. What's really unique about |
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