United States: A new study shows that if you don’t treat high blood pressure when you’re in your 60s, there is a possibility you might be at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease after some time. But there’s good news! Simple actions like taking blood pressure medications can help lower this risk.
As reported by HealthDay, Dr. Matthew Lennon from the University of New South Wales in Australia, who led the study, said that treating high blood pressure as you get older is important for lowering the chance of getting Alzheimer’s. The study’s results were shared on August 14 in the journal Neurology.
Key Findings from the Research
As Lennon explained in the journal news release and taking the blood pressure medications has also been found in the previous research to reduce a person’s risk of getting dementia but also less is known about how the blood pressure affects a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Study Details and Methodology
Trying to answer that question and his team has conducted a meta-analysis of the data or almost more than 31,000 people who had been in the 14 studies that measured the cognitive change and the dementia diagnosis over the period of time.
There are some participants from the United States as well but also from the large number of the different or can say diverse nationalities around the world.
Alzheimer’s Risk and Blood Pressure
And a total of almost 1,415 cases of the Alzheimer’s disease were diagnosed among the group over an average follow-up for almost four years and overall there are nine percent participants were found to have untreated the high blood pressure and the medications 36 percent did not have the high blood pressure and near about 4 percent were noted as uncertain this is according to the news release.
Conclusion and Implications
Folks who are with untreated high blood pressure had a near about 36% higher risk of going on to get Alzheimer’s that’s what Lennon’s team has found, compared to folks with healthy blood pressure. And they had a 42% higher risk for Alzheimer’s compared to folks who were already on a blood pressure medication.
As high blood pressure is actually a leading cause of the stroke and the cerebrovascular disease and yet it can be controlled with medication and reducing a person’s risk of these disease said Lennon.