Preventing Alzheimer's

Of Mice and Mazes: Do high blood pressure medications prevent Alzheimer's? They do in mouse brains - in test tubes and in mazes:

The researchers then tested Diovan in mice that were genetically at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Some of the mice drank water laced with Diovan. Their Diovan dose was lower than that used for people with high blood pressure.

For comparison, other mice got ordinary water without Diovan.

After drinking their assigned water for 11 months, the mice took a memory test in which they had to learn and remember the path through a watery maze.

The mice that drank the Diovan water fared best in the maze test.

But when the researchers tested mice without the dementia gene glitch, Diovan treatment didn't help or hurt the mice navigate the watery maze.

We'll have to wait a while to see how this pans out. What works on mice in mazes doesn't necessarily work on men in mazes.