A daily dose of acetylsalicylic acid, as big as a fourth of an aspirin, may arrest declining mental capacity among the elderly with high cardiovascular risk, says a new study.
Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, over a five year period studied how intellectual capacity changes among 681 elderly women (70 to 92 years) with heightened risk of suffering from a heart attack, vascular spasm or stroke.
Of the 681 women, 129 received a low daily dose of acetylsalicylic acid, to prevent heart disease. The Gothenburg study shows that the drug also slowed decline in brain capacity among the elderly women, the British Medical Journal Open reported.
Silke Kern, Sahlgrenska researcher, said, "The decline in brain capacity was significantly less and occurred at a slower pace among the women who received acetylsalicylic acid."
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