Dementia Won’t Improve for Older People by Taking
Procaine but Health Might Suffer
A topical anesthetic, normally, procaine has been
touted as anti-aging drug that might prevent or even reverse dementia
Oct.
9, 2008 - Procaine, a medication that is normally used as a topical
anesthetic , has been touted as an anti-aging drug that might prevent or
even reverse dementia. A new Cochrane Review, however, suggests that the
risks of bad side effects outweigh any benefit. Procaine
is also known as novocaine.
“There is a lot of information, especially on the
Internet, about the effect of procaine, promoting this drug for
age-related problems, including dementia,” said lead author Szabolcs
Szatmàri at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Romania.
“At the same time, there were no available updated
medical guidelines or evidence-based data for doctors and patients about
procaine.”
The review included three studies involving 427
patients. Data from these studies showed high incidence of side effects
such as restlessness, dizziness, migraine headaches and systemic lupus
erythematosus, a disease in which a person’s immune system attacks
itself.
The review appears in the latest issue of The
Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an
international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic
reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after
considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a
topic.
The authors found two older studies of healthy
elderly persons suggesting that procaine might have a positive effect on
memory in those who have no cognitive impairment. A third study,
however, showed a worsening effect on people with dementia after one
month of procaine treatment.
“There is not enough evidence to recommend procaine
compounds for preventing or treating dementia,” Szatmàri said. “Using
procaine preparations carries some risks, and there are more useful
interventions related to cognitive impairment.
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Yet there is still strong marketing activity
despite this lack of evidence of effect and also despite the decision of
the Food and Drug Administration in 1982 to prohibit the importation of
procaine preparations into the United States.”
Procaine preparations are available in more 70
countries and estimates indicate that more than 100 million people might
use them. Although officially banned in the United States, offshore
Internet pharmacies can provide the compound to American consumers.
“The compound appears to be widely used outside the
U.S. as an over-the-counter cognitive enhancer,” said Paul Newhouse,
M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of
Medicine. “But there is no evidence that it does anything at all and
even some evidence it is toxic. At this point, it cannot be recommended
for any use as a cognitive enhancer or a way to treat dementia.”
Newhouse, who is also the research director of the
Memory Clinic at the university, said he had heard about this use for
procaine compounds 25 years ago, but thought it had fallen out of use in
the interim. However, the advent of the Internet apparently has renewed
interest.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since people are
trying to sell many different unproven remedies through the Internet,”
he said.
There is no rational biological reason for procaine
to work as a way to enhance cognitive function, Newhouse said.
“Usually, you have to at least come up a plausible
theory about why your drug might be useful,” he said. “Procaine works to
inhibit sodium channels (in the cells) and thus chemically stabilize
nerve cells and actually reduces their ability to fire. Why that should
have cognitive enhancing effects eludes me.”
About Procaine (novocaine) at
Wikipedia
Procaine, also known as
novocaine, is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester
group and the primary ingredient in the controversial
preparation Gerovital H3, which is claimed by its advocates
to remedy many effects of aging. The mainstream medical view
is that these claims were seriously studied and discredited
in the 1960s.
Procaine is used
primarily to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of
penicillin, and is also used in dentistry. Owing to the
common use of the trade name Novocain, procaine is sometimes
referred to generically as novocaine.
Procaine was first
synthesized in 1898, and was the first injectable man-made
local anesthetic used. It was created by the German chemist
Alfred Einhorn (1857–1917) who gave the chemical the trade
name Novocaine, from the Latin Novus (meaning New) and caine,
a common ending for alkaloids used as anesthetics. It was
introduced into medical use by surgeon Heinrich Braun
(1862–1934).
Procaine is used less
frequently today since more effective (and hypoallergenic)
alternatives such as lidocaine (Xylocaine) exist. Prior to
the discovery of procaine, cocaine was the most commonly
used local anesthetic. Procaine (like cocaine) has the
advantage of constricting blood vessels, which reduces
bleeding, unlike other local anesthetics like lidocaine, and
without the euphoric and addictive qualities of cocaine.
Procaine, an ester
anesthetic, is metabolized in the plasma by the enzyme
pseudocholinesterase through hydrolysis into para-amino
benzoic acid (PABA), which is then excreted by the kidneys
into the urine. Allergic reactions to procaine are usually
not in response to procaine itself, but to PABA. About 1 in
3000 people have an atypical form of pseudocholinesterase,
which doesn't hydrolyze ester anesthetics such as procaine,
resulting in a prolonged period of high levels of the
anesthetic in the blood and increased toxicity.
Oct.
9, 2008 - Procaine, a medication that is normally used as a topical
anesthetic , has been touted as an anti-aging drug that might prevent or
even reverse dementia. A new Cochrane Review, however, suggests that the
risks of bad side effects outweigh any benefit. Procaine
is also known as novocaine.
Two percent lower lung cancer risk with each glass of
red wine consumed per month