High Blood Pressure and Your Brain

Your blood pressure and your brain health may be connected, according to a new scientific statement.

High blood pressure in middle age may increase your risk of cognitive impairment later in life, according to this statement, for which researchers studied past research on the subject

Along with Alzheimer's disease, vascular cognitive impairment is a leading cause of cognitive impairment. Vascular cognitive impairment is caused by the impaired flow of blood to the brain.

Lead statement author Dr. Costantino Iadecola and team noted that controlled studies need to be conducted to determine whether treating high blood pressure will actually lower the risk of cognitive impairment later in life. In addition, they asked for studies done over a long period of time because there are many years between middle-age high blood pressure and when cognition problems might arise later in life.

The studies that have already been conducted are observational, so they were not designed to determine cause and effect, these researchers noted. 

It is very important to treat high blood pressure on an individual basis to be able to protect the brain, kidney and heart, these researchers said. Speak with your doctor about maintaining healthy blood pressure levels.

These findings were published in the journal Hypertension. 

Information on funding sources and potential conflicts of interest was not available at the time of publication.