This Surprising Factor May Raise Your Risk of Alzheimer ’s

Outside of your genetic makeup, few things are definitively linked to Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative brain conditions. Unlike heart disease, which is affected by behaviors like diet, exercise and smoking, science hasn’t documented many risk factors that make the brain more vulnerable to dementia—although there are hints that things like physical activity and brain games might help to protect against cognitive decline. But in a study published in the journal Neurology, researchers led by Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, medical director of the Rush Memory Clinic at Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, find more evidence that blood pressure may be one of those risk factors. Previous studies have implicated high blood pressure as a possible risk factor for dementia, including Alzheimer’s dementia, but there are few studies exploring how blood pressure, particularly among older people, affects tissues in the brain. In the study, Arvanitakis and her colleagues measured the blood pressure of nearly 1,300 elderly people, aged 59 to 102 years, and followed them until they died, on average eight years after enrolling in the study. The scientists performed autopsies on the brains to document the presence of brain lesions, including signs of Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterized by the presence of protein plaques known as amyloid, and tangles of dying and dead nerve fibrils known as tau. The American Heart Association says that blood pressure shou...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Alzheimer's Blood Pressure Brain healthytime Heart Disease Source Type: news