Scientists at the University of California have found that high blood pressure is associated with decreased brain health later in life, especially in men. there was work published In the journal JAMA Network Open.
During the study, the authors compared brain scans of 30-year-old older people with high blood pressure and those with normal blood pressure. As a result, they were able to find that the first group had brains with less gray matter in the areas of the frontal lobe and parietal cortex (these areas of the brain are important for various cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and decision making). as well as for sensory processing and spatial perception) and white matter were worse for integrity. According to doctors, both of these factors are associated with dementia.
Even a small increase in blood pressure has been associated with a reduction in brain volumes in certain regions. For example, a 5 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure. Art. It was associated with a reduction in the volume of the temporal cortex, which is involved in processing auditory signals and understanding language.
The researchers used data from two studies of healthy aging. The final sample consisted of 427 people who had a health assessment between 1964 and 1985 and an MRI in 2017 and 2022.
“This study shows that already high blood pressure at a young age (30-40 years) is detrimental to brain health in the elderly. “This highlights the importance of maintaining healthy blood pressure from an early age.”