Researchers have found that a drug used in the prevention of strokes, cilostazol, is effective in slowing the progression of mild dementia, according to a study published Thursday in the U.S. online science journal Plos One.
The team including Masafumi Ihara, chief physician at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, said that the drug seems to improve the excretion of waste products in the brain that cause dementia.
Four million people in Japan are believed to have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and a half of them are set to develop dementia-related illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease within five years, according to one estimate.