Link between hypertension and Alzheimer’s

A Sydney brain expert says treating high blood pressure in middle age can significantly reduce the risk of developing dementia.

Better management of high blood pressure could lead to a significant decline in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a national expert on dementia and brain ageing.

In a book due to be published next month, Dr Michael Valenzuela from the University of New South Wales’s School of Psychiatry, argues that there is a growing body of research which suggests a link between hypertension and all forms of dementia.

Dr Valenzuela points to at least six randomised controlled trials which have suggested a link between blood pressure treatment and a slowed rate of cognitive decline

Of particular interest is a European trial involving 4,695 people with hypertension over the age of 60.

Half the group was put on an anti-hypertensive while the other half was put on a placebo control.

Over a two-year period, the incidence of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 50 per cent among the treatment group.

These results were then confirmed in a follow-up study four years later.

Despite these encouraging findings, research in this area has received little attention from the media and the medical profession.

But Dr Valenzuela recommends that everybody have their blood pressure monitored regularly, for the sake of their heart as well as their brain.
 
It’s Never too late to change your mind: The latest medical thinking on what you can do to avoid dementia will be published by ABC books on 6 February.

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