Today's Health Tip

Today's Health Tip
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Could Ibuprofen offer protection against Parkinson's disease?

• By Catholic Online
• 3/4/2011
• Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Anti-inflammatory medicine may be a hedge against the condition

A medicine cabinet standard, ibuprofen may be more beneficial than what many people think. Harvard Medical School researchers suggest that the pain reliever may offer protection against developing Parkinson's disease by targeting a certain receptor in the brain.

Ibuprofen is known to have an anti-platelet effect, though it is relatively mild and short-lived when compared with aspirin or other better-known anti-platelet drugs.

 

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Researchers analyzed data from more than 127,000 people who reported their use of ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs over a six year period. It was determined that the participants who took ibuprofen on a regular basis had a 38 percent lower risk of developing the brain disorder.

"It's a promising drug, it's a well tolerated medication if used with caution and used correctly," Dr. Hubert Fernandez, a neurologist from the Cleveland Clinic, who weighed in on the study. "So, we might shoot two birds with one stone."

Originally marketed as Brufen, and since then under various other trademarks such as Nurofen, Advil, and Nuprin, ibuprofen is often used for relief of symptoms of arthritis, primary dysmenorrhea, fever, and as an analgesic, especially where there is an inflammatory component.

Ibuprofen is known to have an anti-platelet effect, though it is relatively mild and short-lived when compared with aspirin or other better-known anti-platelet drugs. In general, ibuprofen also acts as a vasodilator, having been shown to dilate coronary arteries and some other blood vessels. Ibuprofen is a core medicine in the World Health Organization's "Essential Drugs List", which is a list of minimum medical needs for a basic healthcare system.

The findings are published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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