Blood pressure and dementia risk share surprising link, study suggests

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is known to have a direct impact on heart attack and stroke risk — but a new study has revealed its surprising link to brain health.In a large, randomized trial, researchers led by First Hospital of China Medical University discovered that “intensive blood pressure control” resulted in a 15% reduced dementia risk among participants and a 16% reduced risk of cognitive impairment.The study included 33,995 people in rural China aged 40 or older who had “uncontrolled hypertension.”The participants were divided into two groups.One received “usual care,” while the other was assigned to “trained non-physician community healthcare providers” who prescribed “titrated antihypertensive medications.”For the latter group, the medications helped them achieve a systolic blood pressure goal of <130 mm Hg and a diastolic blood pressure goal of <80 mm Hg, according to the study findings in Nature Medicine.“The primary outcome of all-cause dementia was significantly lower in the intervention group than in the usual care group,” the researchers wrote. They were also less likely to experience “serious adverse events.”This was one of the first large-scale, randomized, controlled effectiveness trials to demonstrate a “significant reduction in all-cause dementia associated with lowering blood pressure,” the researchers concluded.There were some limitations of the study, the article acknowledged, including the absence of baseline and follow-up cognitive assessments. Dr.Bradley Serwer — an interventional cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, an Ingenovis Health company that offers cardiovascular and anesthesiology services to hospitals — said this study presents an “intriguing approach” to addressing dementia in individuals with uncontrolled hypertension. “Unlike studies performed in the United States, this study employed non-physicians to significantly reduce blood pressure...