High blood pressure raises risk of cognitive decline, dementia

The risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in later life is increased for individuals with high blood pressure, especially middle-aged adults. This is the conclusion of a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in the journal Hypertension.

High blood pressure - especially in midlife - may raise the risk of later-life cognitive impairment.

Around 75 million adults - or 1 in 3 adults - in the United States have high blood pressure, or hypertension.

Some well-established complications of high blood pressure include stroke, heart attack, and heart failure. Increasingly, researchers have uncovered strong evidence of a link between hypertension and cognitive decline.

In particular, studies have suggested high blood pressure is a risk factor for vascular cognitive impairment, or vascular dementia - defined as a decline in brain function as a result of impaired blood flow to the brain.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia, accounting for around 10 percent of all cases.

Dr. Costantino Iadecola, statement co-author and chair of the American Heart Association's writing committee, notes that it is known treating high blood pressure can reduce the risk of associated heart complications, but it is less clear whether such treatment can lower the risk of hypertension-associated cognitive decline.

With a view to gaining a better understanding of the link between hypertension and cognitive impairment, Dr. Iadecola and co-authors conducted a review of studies to date looking at how high blood pressure might affect a range of brain diseases, including stroke, vascular dementia, andAlzheimer's disease.