Frequent changes in blood pressure can impact cognitive health and contribute to dementia risk, new Australian research has revealed.<\/p>\n
While high blood pressure has long been recognised as a risk factor for cognitive decline, a Monash University study found that fluctuations in blood pressure throughout the day was also associated with poorer cognition including in memory, problem solving, and planning.<\/p>\n
Researchers used continuous monitoring devices to track the blood pressure of 225 Australians aged between 55 and 80 for 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Even a modest increase in blood pressure changes was linked to lower performance on cognitive tests, equivalent to around seven years of additional ageing.<\/p>\n
Higher average blood pressure over 24 hours was also associated with greater evidence of vascular brain injury, which happens when blood vessels are blocked, narrowed, or weakened.<\/p>\n
Lead author Madeline Gibson, a Monash PhD candidate, said the study highlighted several ways in which abnormal blood pressure could contribute to dementia.<\/p>\n
This included injury to the brain\u2019s white matter tracts and altered function of the blood-brain barrier \u2014 the brain\u2019s protective filtering system.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur study shows that blood pressure is associated with subtle brain changes that can occur long before memory or thinking problems become apparent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether managing blood pressure variability could slow or reverse these brain changes is not yet known but these findings add to growing evidence that the heart and brain are closely linked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially important in midlife, which may be a key window for protecting brain health and reducing later risk of cognitive decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Matthew Pase added that the study highlighted the importance of extended blood pressure monitoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research indicates that standard blood pressure readings taken at a doctor\u2019s clinic may not provide the full picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlood pressure rises and falls across the day and night, and those fluctuations may carry important information about brain health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frequent changes in blood pressure can impact cognitive health and contribute to dementia risk, new Australian research has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500,44],"class_list":["post-699213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}