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A study has found that high blood pressure in a person’s mid-30s may lead to greater risk of poor brain health later on.
Researchers from the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology conducted a study on 500 people born in 1946. The scientists wanted to build on previous research that linked high blood pressure in midlife to increased dementia risk in advancing years. They wanted to learn more about when and how dementia might develop.
The researchers looked at data on the participants’ health. These data included blood pressure measurements from age 36 onwards and brain scans done in the participants’ later years.
Higher blood pressure between the ages of 36 and 43 was found to be associated with brain damage. Similarly, people who had higher blood pressure between ages 43 and 53 showed more signs of brain damage in their 70s.
One of the researchers explained that high blood pressure harms the brain’s white matter, the part that connects the different areas of the brain to each other. This puts people at high risk of brain disease.
In line with these findings, lead researcher Jonathan Schott said that the age at which free mandatory health checks are offered should be changed. Currently, doctors conduct health checks on both the body and the brain only in patients who are 40 years old and above. This is because by those years, manifestations of severe brain illnesses occur. But based on the study, Schott asserted that health checks should be done earlier so that blood pressure problems can be treated even as early as the start of midlife.