(Framingham Patch Staff Reports) Using data from the the Framingham Heart Study, California scientists concluded having high blood pressure may be aging your brain, putting you at risk for memory problems and eventually for dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Researchers at the University of California at Davis, using data from the Framingham Heart Study, concluded that having high blood pressure may be aging your brain.
The scientists also suggested high blood pressure could put you at risk for memory problems and eventually for dementia and Alzheimer’s.
And the risk can begin as early as your 30s or even if you have been diagnosed with pre-hypertension.
The study found accelerated brain aging among hypertensive and prehypertensive individuals in their 40s, including damage to the structural integrity of the brain’s white matter and the volume of its gray matter, suggesting that vascular brain injury “develops insidiously over the lifetime with discernible effects.”
The study is the first to demonstrate that there is structural damage to the brains of adults in young middle age as a result of high blood pressure, the authors said.
“The message here is really clear: People can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn’t necessarily be thinking about it,” said senior study author Charles DeCarli, who is a professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “The people in our study were cognitively normal, so a lack of symptoms doesn’t mean anything.”
If your blood pressure is elevated, health experts recommend making immediate lifestyle changes, including losing weight, exercising more and lowering your salt intake, to get your blood pressure to the 120/80 level.
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What ever else will be linked to high blood pressure?
So often we hear scary predictions on medical matters. Time and again these are subsequently discredited.Faulty data, questionable research, slanted study groups,there are so many factors to be considered. Not least, individuals and their life histories.
I am nearly 70, run an investment property business and use my brain and logic on a daily basis.The only time my thought processes became dull was due to BP Meds.So, although I am ageing, I feel bright and mentally alert.
thank you
newly on BP medic Norvasc which compromised my lower leg vascular system! now trying diuretic & depressed….
are you using Resperate? success?
I think Norvasc should carry a health warning! The side effects of this BP med were the turning point in my decision to come off all meds 2years ago.I suffered so badly, ended up not being able to swallow.3 years of severe choking every time I ate. My doctors were adamant that Norvasc was not to blame.It was.Now I meditate, do Pranayamic breathing and take Olive Leaf Extract capsules and Shi’itake Mushroom Capsules, available in Health food shops.I feel so well.
And this article doesn’t mention the fact that the blood pressure lowering medications can affect you brain just as much!
Is high blood pressure the same for everyone regardless of age when you don’t fit into the 120/80 category? With the 20 +or – it appears normal blood BP could be between 140/ and 100 top and 60 and 100 bottom.
Hal
chinnese naturist books say normal BP is 110 + the half of your age…? (sistolitic) and 80-90 (diastolic0