Dementia risk of having high blood pressure in your mid-30s

HIGH blood pressure in your mid-30s raises the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in later life, research suggests.

Experts have long warned that raised blood pressure can impact on the functioning of the brain.

But a new study led by University College London shows the damage can be done decades before symptoms appear.

They believe there is a ‘sensitive period’ in early middle-age – between the ages of 36 and 53 – in which high blood pressure is particularly damaging to the brain.

The researchers used information from a group of 500 people all tracked from their birth in the same week in March 1946.

The participants had their blood pressure taken throughout their life. Over the past few years, when aged between 69 and 71, they underwent scans of their brains. The researchers found those who had high or rising blood pressure between the ages of 36 and 53 showed a decrease in brain volume by the age of 71.

They also had bigger gaps in the white matter – the ‘wiring’ that connects the different parts of the brain.

The academics, writing in the Lancet Neurology journal, said these were warnings signs of cognitive decline and dementia.

High blood pressure – or hypertension – affects one in three adults, about 17 million people in Britain.

Because hypertension has no symptoms until it is too late, only half of people even know they are at risk. GPs test blood pressure as part of the NHS Health Check programme – known as the ‘mid-life MOT’ – which starts at age 40. But the researchers said the findings show blood pressure should be targeted earlier than this.

Lead author Professor Jonathan Schott, of UCL, said: ‘The findings suggest that blood pressure even in our 30s could have a knock-on effect on brain health four decades later. We found that higher and rising blood pressure between the ages of 36 and 53 had the strongest associations with smaller brain volume and increases in white matter brain lesions in later life. We speculate that these changes may, over time, result in a decline in brain function.’

Dr Carol Routledge, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, which funded the study, said: ‘High blood pressure in midlife is one of the strongest lifestyle risk factors for dementia, and one that is in our control to easily monitor and manage.

‘Research is already suggesting that more aggressive treatment of high blood pressure in recent years could be improving the brain health of today’s older generations.

‘We must continue to build on this insight by detecting and managing high blood pressure even for those in early midlife.’