Controlling blood pressure may be the best known protection against dementia.
In a series of new research, scientists analyzed people’s brains to show that hypertension fuels a kind of scarring linked to the later development of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. These scars can begin to accumulate in middle age, decades before memory problems appear.
Scientists have long noted that some of the triggers for heart disease – high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes – also appear to increase the risk of dementia.
But for years, they thought the link was linked to “vascular dementia,” memory problems usually linked to small strokes. They have now learned that factors such as hypertension also appear to stimulate processes similar to those in Alzheimer’s disease.