According to a recent study, using daily drugs to lower your blood pressure and being aware of it may help you prevent developing dementia later in life.
According to research coauthor Ruth Peters, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, having high blood pressure, especially between the ages of 40 and 65, increases the chance of acquiring dementia in later life.
She continued, however, that it is yet unclear from study if reducing blood pressure in older persons might lessen that risk.
Millimeters of mercury (abbreviated as mmHg) are used to measure blood pressure.Data from five significant randomised, double-blinded clinical studies involving more than 28,000 older persons with an average age of 69 from 20 different countries were merged for the study, which was published this week in the European Heart Journal.
Each research study tracked participants for an average of 4.3 years while comparing those using blood pressure drugs to those receiving a placebo. Peters and her team combined the data and discovered that a reduction of roughly 10 mm/Hg in systolic blood pressure and 4 mm/Hg in diastolic blood pressure at 12 months greatly decreased the likelihood of receiving a dementia diagnosis.
There was also a significant linear link between blood pressure and cognitive risk, which persisted until at least 100 mm/Hg systolic and 70 mm/Hg diastolic, according to the research. Additionally, there was no evidence that blood pressure drugs could impair brain blood flow as people age.
There was no difference in the outcome when factors like sex, age, or a history of stroke were taken into consideration.
According to Peters, "we know that our actions throughout life are likely to have an influence on brain health in later life." The greatest advise we can provide is to live a healthy lifestyle at all ages, and of course, if your doctor has given medicine to regulate your blood pressure, take it as directed by him or her.
