Higher blood pressure linked to greater brain damage in older adults

  • A clinical trial found that hypertensive older adults who took medication to keep their systolic blood pressure around 130 showed markedly fewer white matter lesions than those maintaining a level of 145.
  • A large, long-running study found that higher blood pressiure was linked to more brain lesions and more tau tangles.
  • A long-running study found that both higher amyloid-beta levels and higher vascular risk were linked to faster cognitive decline, with the factors interacting to be worse than additive.

Lowering blood pressure prevents worsening brain damage in elderly

A clinical trial involving 199 hypertensive older adults (average age 81) found that those who took medicine to keep their 24-hour systolic blood pressure around 130 mm Hg for three years showed 40% less accumulation of white matter lesions compared with those taking medicine to maintain a systolic blood pressure around 145 mm Hg.

60% of the patients maintained their target blood pressure throughout the full three years, and data from these alone showed an even bigger difference in number of brain lesions.

The study used around-the-clock ambulatory blood pressure monitors, which measured participants' blood pressure during all activities of daily living.

Participants had an average systolic blood pressure around 150 mm Hg at the beginning of the trial.

The research was presented at the American College of Cardiology's 68th Annual Scientific Session.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/acoc-lbp031819.php

Brain lesions linked to higher blood pressure in older adults

A long-running study tracking 1,288 older adults (65+) until their deaths found that the risk and number of brain lesions increased with higher blood pressure. High blood pressure was also linked to increased risk of protein tangles in the brain.

Two-thirds of the subjects had high blood pressure, while about half had one or more brain infarcts. Those with an upper blood pressure of 147 had a 46% higher chance of having one or more lesions.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/higher-blood-pressure-has-links-to-brain-lesions-in-older-adults-64495

Vascular risk interacts with amyloid levels to increase age-related cognitive decline

Data from 223 participants in the Harvard Aging Brain Study found that both elevated brain amyloid levels and higher vascular risk were associated with more rapid cognitive decline, with the most rapid changes seen in those with both factors. The interaction between the two factors appears to be synergistic rather than simply additive — that is, the interaction between vascular factors and amyloid burden produces more risk than would be predicted from simply adding the two together.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/mgh-vri052118.php

Reference: 

Arvanitakis, Z., Capuano, A. W., Lamar, M., Shah, R. C., Barnes, L. L., Bennett, D. A., & Schneider, J. A. (2018). Late-life blood pressure association with cerebrovascular and Alzheimer disease pathology. Neurology, 91(6), e517. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000005951

[4499] Rabin, J. S., Schultz A. P., Hedden T., Viswanathan A., Marshall G. A., Kilpatrick E., et al.
(2018).  Interactive Associations of Vascular Risk and β-Amyloid Burden With Cognitive Decline in Clinically Normal Elderly Individuals: Findings From the Harvard Aging Brain Study.
JAMA Neurology. 75(9), 1124 - 1131.

Related News

Hearing loss linked to increased dementia risk

Chronic insomnia linked to memory problems

Link found between chronic inflammation and Alzheimer's gene risk

Brain scans of 9,772 people aged 44 to 79, who were enrolled in the UK Biobank study, have revealed that smoking, high blood pressure, high pulse pressure, diabetes, and high BMI — but not high cholesterol — were all linked to greater brain shrinkage, less

A large Chinese study involving 20,000 people has found that the longer people were exposed to air pollution, the worse their cognitive performance in verbal and math tests. The effect of air pollution on verbal tests became more pronounced with age, especially for men and the less educated.

A review of 34 longitudinal studies, involving 71,244 older adults, has concluded that depression is associated with greater cognitive decline.

A study following nearly 28,000 older men for 20 years has found that regular consumption of leafy greens, dark orange and red vegetables and berry fruits, and orange juice, was associated with a lower risk of memory loss.

Poor sleep has been associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease, and this has been thought to be in part because the protein amyloid beta increases with sleep deprivation. A new study explains more.

A small study has found that a 12-week exercise program significantly improved cognition in both older adults with

A clinical trial involving 9361 older adults (50+) with hypertension but without diabetes or history of stroke has found that intensive control of blood pressure significantly reduced the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment.

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news
Error | About memory

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.