Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Cognitive Issues, NIH / 12.03.2022
For Brain Health It’s Never Too Early to Monitor Blood Pressure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lenore J. Launer, Ph.D.
Chief, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences
Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Identifying early risk factors and early changes in the brain will have a major impact on future clinical and public health priorities related to the looming epidemic of dementia. Several studies based on older populations suggest mid-life is an important period to start prevention measures. To date control of blood pressure levels has been the most robust and promising candidate to target for prevention of future cognitive impairment. Although several studies have looked at levels of blood pressure and risk for cognitive impairment, it was not known whether trajectories from young adulthood to middle age studies provided additional information about risk. To investigate possible biomarkers of future risk, we chose to examine the association of the mean arterial blood pressure trajectories to indicators of pathology seen on MRI and that are associated with cognition.
We highlight the results of the mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) measure, which is an integrated measure of systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
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