Power Foods for the Brain (18 page)

At the University of California at San Diego, Beatrice Golomb documented 171 cases of people who reported significant cognitive problems while taking statins.
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In 90 percent of cases, stopping the drug fixed the problem, often within days. Some of these people had been mistakenly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease—diagnoses that no longer applied. Some later resumed taking statins—sometimes several times—only to find their symptoms returning each time. The higher the dose, the more likely they were to have problems, and some people have not fully recovered, even years after stopping the medication.

The side effect seems to be uncommon. But with so many people taking statins, even rare side effects mount up. And doctors treating older people may mistakenly assume that their symptoms are age-related or are attributable to Alzheimer’s disease, and may never stop the drug to see if things clear up.

Luckily, there are other ways to lower your cholesterol, as we saw in
chapter 3
. A chicken-and-fish diet is not very effective, but when people set aside animal products and greasy foods altogether, the effect on their cholesterol levels can be so dramatic that medications are usually unnecessary.

Brand names are in parentheses:

atorvastatin (Lipitor)

ezetimibe/simvastatin (Vytorin)

fluvastatin (Lescol)

lovastatin (Mevacor)

pravastatin (Pravachol)

rosuvastatin (Crestor)

simvastatin (Zocor)

Sleep medications.
In the preceding chapter I mentioned the surprising memory problems that can come from sleeping pills. I strongly suggest avoiding sleeping medications, if possible, and using the more natural approaches to sleep that I described. Common sleeping medications that can interfere with memory include:

diphenhydramine (Benadryl, Sominex)

doxylamine (Unisom, NyQuil, Alka-Seltzer Plus Night Cold, Tylenol Flu Nighttime)

zolpidem (Ambien)

Antidepressants.
Antidepressants work by changing the balance of neurotransmitters that control moods. Some also block acetylcholine, so confusion and memory problems can occasionally occur.

Antidepressants for which memory effects have been commonly reported are listed below.

amitriptyline (Elavil)

desipramine (Norpramin)

imipramine (Tofranil)

nortriptyline (Pamelor)

venlafaxine (Effexor)

Keep in mind, however, that
any
antidepressant can be considered a possible contributor to confusion or memory problems. Even antidepressants that have little or no effect on acetylcholine—fluoxetine (Prozac) and paroxetine (Paxil), for example—should be considered suspects if clouded thinking or memory problems arise.

Many people are tackling depression by other means altogether,
often with spectacular results. New psychotherapy methods are much quicker than previous treatments and work very well. Exercise has also been shown to lift moods, perhaps as well as antidepressant drugs. Of course, if you’re depressed, you may not feel like exercising—or doing much of anything—but once you start, you find that you get an energy boost, and the noticeable payoff keeps you going.

Antihistamines.
Many allergy pills block acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter mentioned above. With occasional use, this is not likely to be a problem, but if you take these medications over extended periods or take more than one medication with this same action, side effects are more likely. Common antihistamines in this category include:

brompheniramine (such as Dimetapp)

chlorpheniramine (such as Chlor-Trimeton)

clemastine (such as Tavist)

diphenhydramine (such as Benadryl)

Newer antihistamines, such as fexofenadine (Allegra) and cetirizine (Zyrtec), are less likely to have these undesirable effects.

Anxiety medications.
Valium, Ativan, Xanax, and other popular anxiety medications are in the same chemical class as Versed, the operating-room drug I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. They do not have anywhere near its power to erase memories. But they can nonetheless impair your memory and blunt your emotions.

It is important to be aware that anxiety drugs are clumsy. When they reach into your brain, they do more than simply turn down the anxiety button. They bump into many different parts of the brain and adjust brain chemistry in myriad ways, not all of which are helpful.

One more problem: With prolonged use, you can become physically dependent on anxiety drugs, as I mentioned above. This does not mean that you will end up in a back alley buying your next dose, but it does mean that stopping them abruptly can lead to rebound anxiety and even seizures. To prevent this, your doctor will taper you off gradually.

alprazolam (Xanax)

clonazepam (Klonopin)

diazepam (Valium)

lorazepam (Ativan)

oxazepam (Serax)

temazepam (Restoril)

triazolam (Halcion)

Painkillers.
Many people take analgesics on a daily basis for chronic pain. Opiate pain relievers (such as morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone) can interfere with your memory over the short term, although most people who take them on a more ongoing basis for chronic pain seem to habituate to their effects and do not have serious cognitive problems.
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Even so, if you are on painkillers and having memory problems, it is worth speaking to your physician about alternatives to your current medications.

If you are using pain medications for rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, or fibromyalgia, let me encourage you to see if a dietary approach might help. Many people find that these painful conditions are triggered by specific foods, such as dairy products, eggs, white potatoes, and a short list of others. In a previous book,
Foods That Fight Pain,
I detailed a simple way to sort out whether eliminating one or more of these foods can cure your problem.

Do not take this on faith. You might simply give it a try and see for yourself. Not everyone finds a food trigger, but when you do, a diet adjustment can allow you to reduce or eliminate your need for medication.

Blood pressure medicines.
Blood pressure medicines have been shown to affect memory in rare cases. Propranolol is sometimes used to reduce blood pressure and more often to slow a rapid heart beat (tachycardia). It can affect the brain.

However, high blood pressure is dangerous and is a key contributor to stroke risk. So if you are on a blood pressure medication, be sure to speak with your doctor before changing the dose.

At the same time, do not neglect nondrug methods that can improve your blood pressure. Weight loss, limiting sodium, following a plant-based diet, and exercise can go a long way toward eliminating the need for blood pressure drugs. See
chapter 4
for more details on how diet changes can help.

Acid blockers.
Many people use medications to block the production of stomach acid. Ranitidine (Zantac) and cimetidine (Tagamet) have been reported to cause confusion in rare cases. Luckily, the problem disappears when the medication is stopped.

The medicines listed above are the common offenders. But other drugs could affect memory, too, and new ones enter the market every year. Often their full range of side effects does not become clear for several years.

The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. In recent years, drugmakers have realized that they do not make much money from medicines that are used for just a few days or
weeks at a time, such as antibiotics. So they are investing heavily in medicines that are used essentially for life. Cholesterol drugs, diabetes drugs, blood pressure drugs, and arthritis drugs are the pharmaceutical industry’s little golden eggs.

The Food and Drug Administration does not require Lipitor’s manufacturer to disclose to patients that many of them would not need the drug at all if they were to follow a plant-based diet. Nor does it require manufacturers of diabetes or blood pressure medicines to reveal that similar menu changes would reduce the need for those drugs, too. On the contrary, drug companies spend a fortune “educating” us about the essential nature of their products. Their continuing medical education courses for doctors, grants to medical centers, and prime-time television advertisements are all designed to help us forget that many of our most common medical problems have their roots in diet and lifestyle.

So do take advantage of the benefits of medicines when you need them. But be cautious, and always be alert to the possibility of side effects, especially if the number of medications you take increases.

If you are experiencing memory problems, you will want to speak with your doctor about possible hidden causes. Here are some important ones to consider:

Could your choice of bread affect your brain? If you’re gluten intolerant, it could. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. For most people, it is easy to digest and is healthful and nutritious. But about 1 percent of people have a hereditary
condition called celiac disease. If you are one of them, your body will react to gluten like a toxin. It can damage your intestinal tract, causing diarrhea and other digestive symptoms.

In the mid-1990s, researchers realized that problems go further. Many people with celiac disease find that even small amounts of these problem grains cause fatigue and mental fuzziness. The good news is that by avoiding gluten, the symptoms vanish.

Testing for celiac disease is easy. Your doctor simply draws a blood sample to check for the antibodies that are the hallmark of the condition. If it looks like you have it, your doctor may perform a small bowel biopsy to check for damage. However, if you suspect you have a gluten problem, you can easily just go gluten-free for a few weeks without testing to see if your symptoms resolve. Let me hasten to add that if you are not sensitive to gluten (the vast majority of people are not), there is no health reason to avoid it.

If you would like to see what a gluten-free diet can do for you, simply avoid wheat, barley, and rye. You should have no problem with rice, corn, millet, quinoa, amaranth, or buckwheat; and vegetables, fruits, beans, tofu, and so on should be fine, too. But you’ll have to read labels, because if you have celiac disease, even the slightest trace of gluten, like the wheat in soy sauce or the barley in a canned soup, will cause a reaction.

Oats do not contain gluten, so in theory they should be okay. Unfortunately, some oat products harbor traces of other grains, which has led some companies (such as Bob’s Red Mill) to use special production facilities that prevent cross-contamination. You may find it prudent to strike oats off your grocery list at first, and then reintroduce them after your symptoms have settled down to see if they affect you one way or the other.

Many grocery stores carry gluten-free breads and other products. When you’re choosing restaurants, Indian, Mexican, and
Middle Eastern fare will have the most choices, and local celiac or gluten-free support groups will have restaurant recommendations for your area.

If you have an untreated depression, your memory may feel like it has been switched off. It’s not just that you’re in an emotional funk. Your brain can’t seem to get in gear. But you will find that as depression lifts, either on its own or with medications, your memory will return to normal.

However, antidepressants are a mixed blessing, sometimes contributing to confusion and memory problems, as we saw above. I would suggest that you first explore nondrug treatments, particularly brief psychotherapy and exercise, and reserve medications for when these more natural methods do not do the job.

Not only does intoxication erase memories, but long-term drug or alcohol use destroys brain cells. If you are having more than one or two drinks a day, you’re getting into the danger zone.

That humble little organ at the base of your neck affects so many things, from metabolism to memory. The memory problems caused by thyroid disease are not usually very severe, but they can occur. Blood tests will easily show whether your thyroid is making too little or too much thyroid hormone.

Symptoms of low thyroid (hypothyroidism) are often vague—fatigue, weakness, and weight gain. But if the condition continues, you could develop an enlarged thyroid, along with a wide variety of problems: dull facial expression, drooping eyelids, hoarse speech, dry skin, brittle hair, menstrual problems, slow heartbeat, constipation, depression, and anemia. Treatment with thyroid hormone is effective and is often helpful in borderline-low cases, too.