Ed note: There’s a saying in medicine that the questions never change, but every few years the answers do. I was taught that it was “normal” for the systolic blood pressure to increase roughly 10 points for every decade and that the diastolic blood pressure was more important. Well, the answers have changed. Now the treatment of blood pressure in the elderly is much more aggressive. The systolic should likely be under 130 and possibly at 120 or even a bit lower. It’s best to discuss this with your own doctor. The risk of low blood pressure is real – falls being a significant problem. It’s a good idea to check your BP both sitting and standing to make sure it’s not dropping too much.
From the NYT: People who received intensive treatment for hypertension were less likely to develop minor cognitive problems than those receiving standard treatment.Coloured positron emission tomography (PET, centre) and computed tomography (CT, left) scans of the brain of a 62-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease.CreditZephyr/Science Source
In dementia research, so many paths have led nowhere that any glimmer of optimism is noteworthy.
So some experts are heralding the results of a large new study, which found that people with hypertension who received intensive treatment to lower their blood pressure were less likely than those receiving standard blood pressure treatment to develop minor memory and thinking problems that often progress to dementia.
The study, published Monday in JAMA, is the first large, randomized clinical trial to find something that can help many older people reduce their risk of mild cognitive impairment — an early stage of faltering function and memory that is a frequent precursor to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.