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High blood pressure harms brain health
When middle-aged people have one high blood pressure , this significantly increases the risk of later damage to the blood vessels and shrinking of the brain.
The latest study by the University College London Queen Square Institute of Neurology found that when middle-aged people have high blood pressure, it negatively affects blood vessels and the brain. The results of the study were published in the English-language journal "Lancet Neurology".
Hypertension accelerates brain damage
If people had high blood pressure in early mid-life, this was associated with later damage to the blood vessels and shrinking of the brain. Hypertension in this critical phase between the ages of 30 and 50 seems to accelerate brain damage, the researchers report. High blood pressure in middle age has previously been associated with an increased risk of dementia. However, the researchers wanted to find out more about when and how this could happen. During the study, participants' blood pressure was measured and brain scans were also performed. Our brains usually shrink somewhat with age, but this is more pronounced in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as vascular dementia.
High blood pressure should be noticed earlier
The researchers found that high blood pressure between the ages of 43 and 53 was associated with more signs of damage to the blood vessels or with so-called mini-strokes in people over the age of 70. Blood pressure could have a negative impact on brain health as early as the 1930s. Monitoring and interventions to maximize brain health in later life must be done at least in the early middle of life, reports the research group. It is known that people with higher blood pressure tend to develop a different brain structure later in life. Therefore, it has long been debated whether treating hypertension in young people can actually prevent these brain changes. The currently used alternative is to only watch for increased blood pressure later in life. By then, however, the more serious brain changes have already developed.
High blood pressure is one of the main risk factors for dementia
The results of the study support the notion that there may be critical phases in life, such as in the 1930s and 1940s, when periods of high blood pressure accelerate brain damage, the researchers explain. Mid-life high blood pressure is one of the strongest risk factors for dementia. However, this is a risk that can be checked and monitored relatively easily. Hypertension should therefore be diagnosed and treated early in life. (as)
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This text corresponds to the specifications of the medical literature, medical guidelines and current studies and has been checked by medical doctors.
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- Christopher A Lane, Josephine Barnes, Jennifer M Nicholas, Carole H Sudre, David M Cash et al .: Associations between blood pressure across adulthood and late-life brain structure and pathology in the neuroscience substudy of the 1946 British birth cohort (Insight 46) : an epidemiological study, in Lancet Neurology (query: 21.08.2019), Lancet Neurology
