People with higher blood pressure are at much lower risk of developing dementia, scientists say
PEOPLE with high blood pressure could be at a lower risk of developing dementia, a study found.
Researchers say high blood pressure may protect elderly patients against conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
The findings are surprising as high blood pressure - also known as hypertension - is normally associated with poor health, including a greater risk of heart attacks and stroke.
But researchers at the University of California, Irvine, discovered patients who develop hypertension between 80 and 89-years-old are 42 per cent less likely to get dementia.
Those who develop high blood pressure at the age of 90-years-old were at an even lower risk - they were 63 per cent less likely to suffer from dementia.
Professor Maria Corrada, an epidemiologist at the University of California who led the research, said it was unclear why heightened blood pressure had this affect.
She said: “This relationship had not yet been examined in groups of older people in their 80s or 90s.
“Before we can make the leap to suggesting changes to blood pressure recommendations for reducing dementia risk in clinical care, we need more research to confirm and explain our findings.”
The researchers, whose study is published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia, followed 559 elderly people for an average of almost three years.
During that time, 224 of those taking part - about 40 per cent - were diagnosed with dementia but relatively few of those had been found to have high blood pressure.
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An estimated 800,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia and that number is expected to soar to more than a million by 2025.
Dr Laura Phipps, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said the results were particularly surprising as previous research had shown high blood pressure in early life increased the risk of dementia.
She said: “High blood pressure may play a protective role in the brain in the very later stages of life, but the link could also be driven by a drop in blood pressure being an early sign of dementia in older people.
“There are many known health risks associated with high blood pressure, so people shouldn’t see these findings as a reason to abandon a healthy lifestyle or their current medication plan.”