Our Alzheimer's journey ended on July 26, 2014. My DH had been diagnosed ten years prior, though, as we all know, he had signs years before that.
He was just 62 when he died. I have recently come to the conclusion that long term use of Valium most likely caused his Alzheimer's disease.
The article I read in the Harvard Health Publication states: "Taking the drug for three to six months raised the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 32%, and taking it for more than six months boosted the risk by 84%". My DH took valium for anxiety since he was in college. Just 5-10 mg per day but this drug has a long half life and it was never out of his system. He had a prescription. Even after diagnosis the doctors didn't suspect this as a cause. Now that these studies have come out, it makes perfect sense. I have not seen very much talk about this and I hope that doctors will stop prescribing Benzodiazepines so freely. They adversely affect the brain and cause terrible damage.

Note the subjects studied
"The researchers relied on a database maintained by the Quebec health insurance program. From it, they identified nearly 2,000 men and women over age 66 who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. They randomly selected more than 7,000 others without Alzheimer’s who were matched for age and sex to those with the disease. Once the groups were set, the researchers looked at the drug prescriptions during the five to six years preceding the Alzheimer’s diagnosis."

The researchers also stated that the need for anti anxiety medication during the timeframe studied - 5-6 years prior to diagnosis - may have been the result of the early symptoms of Alzheimer's.

HILDANN Taking any psychotropic drug be it a benzodiazepine or other class throughout one's entire adult life is indicative of a an addiction (yes, even at a minimal dose your DH was taking he was addicted. Apparently your DH was incapable of coping with the anxiety withdrawal would produce: The Physician who provided your DH with a lifetime of Rx's and failed to treat his anxiety was remiss.

I agree with you, Charlotte. We hear that people who are couch potatoes, eat junk, don't watch their weight, and don't stay mentally active, are prone to Alzheimer's, but we all know many people who are the opposite of that (including both my father and my husband) who got it. And neither my father nor my husband would have touched an anti-anxiety pill. (If my husband knew he was taking 2 Ativan plus 1 trazodone per day, he would be horrified!) There must be more than one cause.