Can blood pressure in your twenties cause cognitive decline in your fifties?

Written on |

TAU and Northwestern University study proves treatment for high blood pressure must begin decades earlier than it does now.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects everything from your arteries to your kidneys, from eyesight to sexual function. Among older adults, high blood pressure is also associated with cognitive decline as a result of interrupted blood flow to the brain, as well as strokes, heart attacks and impaired mobility.

A new Northwestern University–Tel Aviv University study has revealed that subjects who experienced relatively high blood pressure during young adulthood also experienced significant declines in cognitive function and gait in midlife (approximately 56 years old). The study cohort included about 200 young adults with an average age of 24 at the beginning of the study.

The research was led by Prof. Farzaneh A. Sorond and Dr. Simin Mahinrad of Northwestern University’s Department of Neurology and Prof. Jeffrey Hausdorff of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and Tel Aviv Medical Center’s Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility at the Neurological Institute. The study was published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation on November 21, 2019.

Thirty years of data

“We find that the deleterious effects of elevated blood pressure on brain structure and function begin in early adulthood. This demonstrates the need for preventive measures of high blood pressure even at this early age,” explains Prof. Hausdorff. “We know that poor gait and cognitive function among older adults are associated with and predict multiple adverse health outcomes like cognitive decline, dementia, falls and death. Our study shows that the time to treat high blood pressure and to minimize future changes in gait and cognition is much earlier — decades earlier — than previously thought.”

In addition, the study suggests that gait impairment may be an earlier hallmark of hypertensive brain injury than cognitive deficits.

For the study, the researchers assessed the blood pressure, gait and cognition of 191 participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, a community-based cohort of young individuals followed over 30 years. In the last year of follow-up, gait was assessed using an instrumented gait mat; cognitive function was evaluated using neuropsychological tests; and the level of white matter intensity in the brain, a symptom of cardiovascular disease, was measured using MRIs. The impact of cumulative levels of high blood pressure was found to be independent of other vascular risk factors over the same 30-year period.

High pressure leads to smaller steps

“Higher cumulative blood pressure was associated with slower walking speed, smaller step length and higher gait variability,” Prof. Hausdorff says. “Higher cumulative blood pressure was also associated with lower cognitive performance in the executive, memory and global domains.”

“Our takeaway is this: Even in young adults, blood pressure has significant implications, even at levels below the ‘hypertension’ threshold, and is important to assess and modify for future cognitive function and mobility,” Prof. Hausdorff concludes.

Related posts

Hyperbaric Treatment More Effective than Medicines for Fibromyalgia Caused by Head Injury

24 March 2023

Promoting Women in Medicine

9 March 2023

#TAU_WOMEN_POWER

7 March 2023

Researchers Discover Mechanism that Facilitates Formation of Brain Metastases

27 February 2023

Light Pollution is Killing Desert Rodents

10 February 2023

Three Tel Aviv University Researchers Awarded the ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grants

9 February 2023

Researchers Identify A New Genetic Risk Factor for Age-related Eye Disease

8 February 2023

People With Autism Experience Pain at a Higher Intensity

31 January 2023

Researchers Uncover New Factors Linked to Williams Syndrome

24 January 2023

Lessons in Tolerance and DNA Extraction in Tel Aviv University’s Medical Labs

18 January 2023

Medical Clowns – No Laughing Matter

18 January 2023

Tel Aviv University’s First MedTech Hackathon Sets a High Bar

15 January 2023

Researchers use Smartwatches to Measure Safety of COVID Vaccine

28 December 2022

Tel Aviv University Establishes Multidisciplinary Center for Research of Autoimmune Diseases

18 December 2022

Breakthrough in the Field of Controlled Drug Delivery

16 December 2022

Common Medications May Reduce Risk of Metastases after Colon and Rectal Cancer

9 December 2022

Victoria

Tok Corporate Centre, Level 1,
459 Toorak Road, Toorak VIC 3142
Phone: +61 3 9296 2065
Email: office@aftau.asn.au

New South Wales

Level 22, Westfield Tower 2, 101 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone: +61 418 465 556
Email: davidsolomon@aftau.org.au

Western Australia

P O Box 36, Claremont,
WA  6010
Phone: :+61 411 223 550
Email: clivedonner@thelinqgroup.com