High blood pressure reduces your brain, according to a study



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A new study suggests that high blood pressure in people of average age increases dramatically between ages 30 and 40, which is linked to poorer brain health after retirement.

Those with higher blood pressure at age 53 and increased more rapidly between 43 and 53 years were more likely to have damaged blood vessels in the brain in the early 1970s, researchers who followed 502 people.

Scientists examined the brain of members of the Birth cohort of Insight 46 – a group of people born in the same week in 1946 and enrolled in a study to identify risk factors for dementia.

They were able to use the blood pressure measurements taken throughout the life of the cohort to guide their work.

The study, published in The neurology of lancet Journal, also found that faster increases in blood pressure between 36 and 43 years were related to lower brain volume – an indicator of brain health.

But the research did not find a link between blood pressure and the amount of amyloid protein – an Alzheimer’s-related substance – nor did it establish the measure as a predictor of memory or cognitive problems.

”This unique group of individuals, who have contributed to research their entire lives, has already shaped our understanding of the factors influencing health throughout life," said Professor Jonathan Schott, from University College London‘s Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

“The Insight 46 study has allowed us to reveal more about the complex relationship between blood pressure and brain health. The findings suggest that blood pressure even in our 30s could have a knock-on effect on brain health four decades later. We now know that damage caused by high blood pressure is unlikely to be driven through the hallmark Alzheimer’s protein amyloid, but through changes in blood vessels and the brain’s architecture.

He added: “The findings show that blood pressure monitoring and interventions aimed at maximising brain health later in life need to be targeted at least by early midlife.”

Dr Karen Doyle, a physiologist from the National University of Ireland Galway, said: “The study clearly implicates high blood pressure as a cause of white matter lesions and smaller brain volume later in life. It also distinguishes between the effect of high blood pressure on two known causes of dementia – small cerebral blood vessel disease is increased with high blood pressure, but there is no significant link to the amyloid pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.

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“The Insight 46 participants are only 70 years old in this study – still relatively young. A limitation to this study that is acknowledged by the authors is that the sample is composed of people with fewer health problems than average and is exclusively composed of white people.

“Nevertheless, the overall conclusion that earlier monitoring and intervention to reduce high blood pressure will help to protect the brain as we age, is sound.”

The study was funded by Alzheimer's Research UK, MRC Dementias Platform UK, Wellcome, Brain Research UK, the Wolfson Foundation and the Weston Brain Institute.

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