High blood pressure link to dementia?

Their study suggests high blood pressure in midlife can result in a 6.5 percent drop in scores of memory, concentration and other brain functions 20 years on.

Their study suggests high blood pressure in midlife can result in a 6.5 percent drop in scores of memory, concentration and other brain functions 20 years on.

Published Aug 14, 2014

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London - Having high blood pressure in middle age raises the risk of impaired brain power in later life, possibly leading to dementia, warn researchers.

Their study suggests high blood pressure in midlife can result in a 6.5 percent drop in scores of memory, concentration and other brain functions 20 years on.

But taking drugs for hyper- tension, the medical term for high blood pressure, lessens this impact on cognitive function and should be started earlier rather than later, say the American scientists.

Dr Rebecca Gottesman, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said the study showed a “relatively modest” decline in brainpower because of high blood pressure.

But dementia was more likely to develop in later years if cognitive function had worsened in middle-age – the time when blood pressure medication could have the greatest impact. ‘Initiating treatment in late life might be too late to prevent this important shift,’ said Dr Gottesman.

“Our own study supports midlife blood pressure as a more important predictor of – and possibly target for prevention of – late-life cognitive function than is later life blood pressure.”

The study, which followed 14 000 people aged 48 to 67 years for two decades on average, compared brain function for those with hypertension, pre- hypertension and normal blood pressure.

A high blood pressure reading is classified as more than 140/90 millimetres of mercury.

The first figure, the systolic pressure, corresponds to the ‘surge’ that occurs with each heart beat. The diastolic reading is the pressure in the “resting” stage between beats.

Those taking part in the study had their blood pressure checked five times over the 20-year period and were also given mental tests including ones for memory.

The researchers found that the decline in brain power scores for volunteers with hypertension was 6.5 percent greater than for those with normal blood pressure, beyond that expected from ageing alone.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, also revealed that those with high blood pressure who took medication had less cognitive decline during the 20-year period than participants with untreated high blood pressure.

Dr Gottesman said: “Our results also suggest that medication reduces the decline attributable to hypertension.”

Dr Simon Ridley, the head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This large-scale, long-term study adds further weight to an evidence base linking high blood pressure to a risk of cognitive decline.

“Although this research is not able to establish cause and effect, a large body of research suggests that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain.

“It’s important to note that this study did not look specifically at dementia, and the link between high blood pressure and cognitive decline was only found in midlife rather than in later life, highlighting the complexity of research in this area.

“With an ageing population the number of people with dementia is set to grow, so investment in research to find preventions is crucial. In the meantime, controlling blood pressure is one way to lower the risk of dementia, along with eating a healthy diet, doing regular exercise, not smoking and keeping your weight in check.”

Six million Britons are prescribed drugs to control their blood pressure. - Daily Mail

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