A study has recently found that blood-thinning drugs taken to prevent strokes may dramatically reduce the risk of dementia.
Patients with abnormal heart rhythms who took anticoagulants to stop blood clots had a 48 % lower risk of dementia than untreated patients.
“No brain can withstand a constant bombardment of microscopic clots,” said Leif Friberg, associate professor of cardiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who carried out the research.
Prof. Friberg said that patients stopped taking the drugs prematurely and has a “fatalistic” attitude to strokes, believing that “either you get it or you don’t”.
