Memory Problems? How’s Your BP?

If you’re middle-aged and have high blood pressure, anywhere from 140/90 or higher, you may have trouble with your memory as well.

An interesting study, published in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology, found that people over the age of 45 years who had a high lower blood pressure number, the diastolic number had a higher chance of having memory or cognitive problems than those who are normotensive, or have normal diastolic blood pressure numbers.

Researchers looked at almost 20,000 people who were over 45 years old. According to a press release from American Academy of Neurology,

For every 10 point increase in the reading, the odds of a person having cognitive problems was seven percent higher. The results were valid after adjusting for other factors that could affect cognitive abilities, such as age, smoking status, exercise level, education, diabetes or high cholesterol.

Most people tend to focus on the upper number of the blood pressure reading, the diastolic pressure. While it can be dramatically high, such as 200/110, doctors have come to recognize that the lower number plays a large role in heart and brain health as well. In this instance,

Research has shown that high diastolic blood pressure leads to weakening of small arteries in the brain, which can result in the development of small areas of brain damage.

At this point, researchers don’t know if this is reversible or not. But, by knowing that there is a relationship between higher diastolic numbers and memories, doctors have an even added incentive to try to keep those numbers low.

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