High Blood Pressure May Heighten Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2007) — Having hypertension, or high blood pressure, reduces blood flow in the brains of adults with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
“While hypertension is not a cause of Alzheimer’s disease, our study shows that it is another hit on the brain that increases its vulnerability to the effects of the disease,” said study co-author Cyrus Raji, scientist and M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh where the study was conducted.
Hypertension is a condition in which the blood circulates through the arteries with too much force. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, approximately 50 million Americans have hypertension. People with hypertension are at elevated risk for heart attack, stroke and aneurysm. Recently, there has been mounting evidence tying cardiovascular health to brain health.
“This study demonstrates that good vascular health is also good for the brain,” said co-author Oscar Lopez, M.D., professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. “Even in people with Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to detect and aggressively treat hypertension and also to focus on disease prevention.”
For the study, the researchers used arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can measure blood flow in the brain, to image 68 older adults. Arterial spin-labeled MRI is a novel, noninvasive technique that requires no external contrast agent.
The patient group included 48 normal individuals, including 38 with hypertension and 10 without; 20 Alzheimer’s patients, including 10 with hypertension and 10 without; and 20 adults with mild cognitive impairment, 10 with hypertension and 10 without. Mild cognitive impairment, which affects brain functions such as language, attention and reasoning, is a transition stage between normal aging deficits in the brain and greater levels of dementia.
The MRI results showed that in all patient groups blood flow in the brain was substantially decreased in patients with hypertension compared to those without. Cerebral blood flow was lowest among the Alzheimer’s patients with hypertension, but the normal group with hypertension showed significantly lower cerebral blood flow than the normal group without hypertension.
“These results suggest that by changing blood flow to the brain, hypertension–treated or untreated–may contribute to the pathology of Alzheimer’s,” Raji said.
Co-authors are C. Lee, M.D., W. Dai, Ph.D., J.Becker, Ph.D., L. Kuller, M.D., H. Gach, Ph.D., et al.
Adapted from materials provided by Radiological Society of North America.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071128114847.htm
Filed under: Alzheimer's, MRI, aneurysm, blood pressure, health, hypertension, stroke
That’s an interesting thought. My mother-in-law recently died of dementia, (cancer as well), but I don’t remember anyone checking her blood pressure. I makes sense that if the blood is having trouble getting to right places then whatever else is going on will be exacerbated. Seems to me that an essential part of every family first aid kit should be a BP meter. Who knows what other problems can be alleviated by treating high blood pressure.
It was previously referred to as arterial hypertension, but in current usage, the word “hypertension” without a qualifier normally refers to arterial hypertension. Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a leading cause of chronic renal failure. People with hypertension or history of cardio-vascular disease should avoid Liquorice raising their blood pressure to risky levels. Relaxation therapy, such as meditation, that reduces environmental stress, reducing high sound levels and over-illumination can be an additional method of ameliorating hypertension.
Thank you for the info.
According to recent estimates, nearly one in three U.S. In fact, many people have high blood pressure for years without knowing it. Doctors think that many things combine to cause HBP. Being overweight, drinking too much alcohol, and eating too much salt are risk factors because they raise your risk of having HBP. Doctors established a long time ago that happy and humorous people don’t fall sick; they don’t suffer high blood pressure and other debilitating ailments, just because they choose to be happy. You would agree that’s not such a difficult decision to make. Doctors often suggest you to decrease salt intake, as sodium can increase blood pressure. But this is an advantage for people with low blood pressure.
this was a very interesting read. I am glad for the information. there are so many things we are ignorant of that if we know can prevent so much.
Thanks for your comments.