New research reveals that patients receiving heparin therapy were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease up to two years later, suggesting a possible protective effect of this common anticoagulant. Study: Heparin treatment is associated with a delayed diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia in electronic health records from two large United States health systems . Image Credit: TopMicrobialStock / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry , researchers explored the potential of heparin therapy in delaying the diagnosis of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease among people over 65.
Their findings indicate that heparin therapy was associated with a one-year delay in dementia diagnoses in one health system and a two-year delay in another, suggesting the protective potential of this well-known anticoagulant. Background Originally derived from liver cells, heparin has been used clinically since the 1930s Alzheimer’s disease and associated dementia severely affect the quality of life for people who have it. The national cost of caring for affected individuals in the United States reached $345 billion annually in 2023.
Estimates suggest that Alzheimer’s disease was the fifth-leading cause of death among people over the age of 65 in 2021, with more than 10 million new cases of dementia diagnosed around the world each year. Recent research suggests that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s may be influenced by a specific protein called Apolipoprote.