Lowering your blood pressure could slash your risk of dementia by 15% – the 14 lifestyle tweaks to make today
People with high blood pressure who took medication and accepted coaching to lower it reduced their risk of the brain disease by 15 per cent, scientists found.
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Nearly a million Brits have dementia and it is the leading cause of death.
The new study, published in Nature Medicine, today, backs up what experts have long stressed: that dementia is not an inevitability of ageing.
'Antihypertensive treatment can prevent dementia in patients with uncontrolled hypertension," said Prof Jiang He, co-author of the study from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
"Given the high prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension worldwide, this effective intervention should be widely adopted and scaled up to reduce the global burden of dementia."
Around one in three adults in the UK suffer from high blood pressure, also called hypertension.
It can be caused by poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, or stress, according to the NHS.
Hypertension can raise the risk of dementia by damaging blood vessels in the brain, which reduces blood flow and can lead to strokes or brain damage.
The new study builds on earlier findings, including research published in The Lancet last year that revealed that half of dementia cases could be prevented with 14 healthy habits.
Reducing high blood pressure was one, along with lowering cholesterol and good education and mental stimulation.
'Looking after our heart and blood vessel health is something we can all do to improve our overall wellbeing and reduce our risk of dementia," Dr Julia Dudley, from Alzheimer's Research UK, said.
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"With no current treatments available on the NHS to slow or stop the diseases that cause dementia, there has never been a more pressing need to promote good brain health and to gain a deeper understanding of how we can reduce our risk of developing dementia."
The trial, led by researchers in China and the US, involved nearly 34,000 people over 40 with uncontrolled high blood pressure across 326 rural Chinese villages.
Half were given intensive blood pressure care - free or low-cost meds, lifestyle coaching – such as weight loss, alcohol reduction and reducing salt intake advice.
They were also equipment and instructions to monitor blood pressure at home.
The other half had usual clinical care - meaning participants' blood pressure was managed in their normal clinical settings.
Lifestyle changes were recommended and some took blood pressure-lowering drugs.
But this group did not receive free at-home blood pressure monitors, medications, or coaching.
After four years, those on the intensive programme were 15 per cent less likely to develop dementia.
They also had a 16 per cent lower risk of cognitive problems without full-blown dementia.
Researchers said both groups were similar at the start, so the results are likely reliable.
However, Prof Joanna Wardlaw, from the University of Edinburgh, said the study doesn't show whether it was the blood pressure meds or the lifestyle changes that made the difference - it's likely a mix of both.
Other experts said longer studies are needed, and the approach should be tested in other countries too.
"Further studies are needed to understand how other risk factors like genetics interact with factors like high blood pressure to influence dementia risk,' Dr Julia added.
'It will also be interesting to see whether the interventions trialled in this study can work in other populations across the world," she added.
Prof Tara Spires-Jones, the director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said the research 'provides further strong evidence supporting the importance of managing blood pressure and other cardiovascular risks to protect the brain during ageing'.
She added: 'It is important to note that treating high blood pressure was not a foolproof guarantee as some people receiving treatment still developed dementia.'
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