Common Medications That May Be Increasing Your Alzheimer’s Risk
You're taking it for heartburn, allergies, sleep, or anxiety — but almost nobody mentions what long-term use might be doing to your brain.
If you haven’t considered how your daily or frequent medications could be affecting your brain, it’s time to find out.
Most people don’t ask that question when a prescription is written or an over-the-counter bottle gets tossed into the shopping cart. It helps a symptom, so you take it.
That’s a completely understandable path — it’s how most of us have been taught to think about medication. The unconscious assumption is that if it’s prescribed or sold on a shelf, it must be safe.
But some of the most commonly prescribed — and commonly purchased over the counter — medications have associations with cognitive decline and dementia that most people have never been told about.
For women with a maternal history of Alzheimer’s who are already working to reduce their risk, this information is especially worth having.
To be clear upfront:
I am not suggesting you stop taking anything you’ve been prescribed
That conversation belongs with your doctor
What I am suggesting is that you know what you’re taking, understand what the research says about long-term use, and feel empowered to have a more informed conversation with your physician
Because here’s what I’ve observed over more than a decade of working in Alzheimer’s prevention: most people have never been told that certain medications they’ve been on for years carry a meaningful association with dementia.
And when they find out, they feel betrayed and wish they had been told.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)
PPIs are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the country. They’re used to treat acid reflux and indigestion, and many people take them daily for years.
Common names include:
Omeprazole (Prilosec)
Pantoprazole (Protonix)
Esomeprazole (Nexium)
The problem with long-term PPI use goes beyond the stomach:
They impair the absorption of B12, magnesium, and zinc — nutrients that are critical for optimal brain function
They alter the gut microbiome in ways that have effects on brain health, given how directly the gut and brain communicate
Long-term use has been associated in research with an increased risk of dementia
Additional concerns include kidney problems, heart issues, and increased fracture risk
PPIs aren’t easy to stop once you’ve been on them for a long time — the acid rebound can be significant, and tapering needs to be done gradually with a doctor’s guidance. But stopping the medication without addressing why the acid problem developed in the first place leaves the root cause untouched. That means you need a plan that’s based on your specific lab results.
Anticholinergic medications
This category deserves particular attention. Anticholinergic drugs work by blocking the action of acetylcholine — a neurotransmitter that plays a central role in memory, learning, and attention.
In other words, these drugs interfere with the very brain chemistry involved in cognitive function.
What makes this especially concerning is how many common medications fall into this category — including some you can buy without a prescription.
The cumulative effect of blocking acetylcholine over months and years is not trivial. Research has shown that long-term anticholinergic use is associated with increased dementia risk, and the effect appears to be dose-dependent — meaning the longer and more consistently you take them, the greater the concern.
People with an existing dementia diagnosis should never be on these medications.
As a woman at risk for Alzheimer’s with a maternal history of the disease, I would never take one of these medications.
Common anticholinergic drugs include:
Benadryl and other first-generation antihistamines (diphenhydramine, chlorpheniramine)
Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline
Bladder medications for overactive bladder such as oxybutynin
Benzodiazepines
Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, sleep, and muscle relaxation. Long-term use has been associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease — significantly enough that some researchers have called it a public health concern.
The mechanism matters here. Benzodiazepines suppress areas of the brain involved in transferring information from short-term to long-term memory.
That’s not a subtle side effect.
Common benzodiazepines include Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin, and Restoril. Used occasionally and short-term, the risk profile is different. Used consistently over months and years, the picture changes considerably.
The question worth asking isn’t just “is there a safer medication?” It’s “what can I do instead of what can I take?” That question opens a very different kind of conversation — a more productive one.
Upgrade to get the rest of this email, where I go deeper on each medication category, the functional testing that can help you address the root cause, and the lifestyle and supplement approaches that support your body in ways medication can’t.