Intensive blood pressure treatment may lower dementia risk | Innovation

By Andy Coghlan

People who receive stronger-than-normal blood pressure treatments have been found to be 19 per cent less likely to later develop signs of cognitive impairment, a common prelude to dementia. The results provide new hope that targeting blood pressure could be an effective measure for preventing dementia.

The findings come from a study of more than 9000 people in the US, around the age of 68. Beginning in 2010, the trial involved giving participants different levels of treatment for high blood pressure. Half received standard treatments to reduce their blood pressure to stable, but above …