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Study: Young adults with high blood pressure at greater risk for dementia

“Given the greater likelihood of high blood pressure in some racial and ethnic groups, this study’s finding should encourage health care professionals to aggressively address high blood pressure in young adults, as a potential target to narrow disparities in brain health.”

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By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

Young adults with high blood pressure are at greater risk from dementia in later life, warns a new study.

American scientists have found young adults with high blood pressure had more visible changes to their brains when they were middle aged, which may put them at greater risk of memory loss as they age.

The changes were similar across all races and ethnic groups.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 47 percent of US adults had high blood pressure between 2015 and 2019.

In the US, the age-adjusted death rate from ailments primarily caused by high blood pressure was 25.1 per 100,000 in 2019.

High blood pressure death rates for non-Hispanic Black American adults were 56 per 100,000 among men and 38.7 per 100,000 for women.

Earlier research has discovered high blood pressure disrupts the structure and function of blood vessels in our brains, damaging parts of the brain that are important for mental and emotional function.

There is evidence to suggest changes to the brain start when we are young, and the researchers say their work is yet more evidence that high blood pressure in our youth leads to changes in the brain later in life.

For the study, the academics analyzed MRI scans from the brains of 142 adults when they 30 and again when they were 55.

The participants were recruited in four US cities during 1985 and 1986, 42 per cent of them were women and almost 40 percent of them were Black.

In a follow-up, they examined changes to the brain from a range of risk factors including blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, smoking and sugar intake- all from young adulthood to midlife.

Lead study author Dr. Christina Lineback, of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said: “There are studies to suggest changes to the brain may start at a young age.

“Our study provides further evidence that high blood pressure during young adulthood may contribute to changes in the brain later in life.

“We were surprised that we could see brain changes in even this small sample of participants from the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study.

“Given the greater likelihood of high blood pressure in some racial and ethnic groups, this study’s finding should encourage health care professionals to aggressively address high blood pressure in young adults, as a potential target to narrow disparities in brain health.”

Researchers say their work does not yet prove the brain changes are caused by high blood pressure.

They now want to develop and implement systems to better treat and monitor blood pressure in young people and look for changes to the brain over time.

The findings, which have not yet been published in an academic journal, will be presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2022, which will take place in New Orleans from February 9-11 .

The research was funded by US National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute and the country’s National Institutes of Health.

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