High blood pressure damages the brain in early middle age

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/uoc--hbp103012.php

Public release date: 31-Oct-2012
Contact: Phyllis Brown
University of California - Davis Health System

Research is the first to demonstrate structural damage to the brain from high blood pressure among people as young as 40

Uncontrolled high blood pressure damages the brain's structure and function as early as young middle-age, and even the brains of middle-aged people who clinically would not be considered to have hypertension have evidence of silent structural brain damage, a study led by researchers at UC Davis has found.

The investigation found accelerated brain aging among hypertensive and prehypertensive individuals in their 40s, including damage to the structural integrity of the brain's white matter and the volume of its gray matter, suggesting that vascular brain injury "develops insidiously over the lifetime with discernible effects."

The study is the first to demonstrate that there is structural damage to the brains of adults in young middle age as a result of high blood pressure, the authors said. Structural damage to the brain's white matter caused by high blood pressure previously has been associated with cognitive decline in older individuals.

Published online today in the medical journal The Lancet Neurology, the study will appear in print in the December 2012 issue. It emphasizes the need for lifelong attention to vascular risk factors for brain aging, said study senior author Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center.

"The message here is really clear: People can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn't necessarily be thinking about it," DeCarli said. "The people in our study were cognitively normal, so a lack of symptoms doesn't mean anything."

Normal blood pressure is considered a systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- below 120 and a diastolic pressure -- the bottom number -- below 80. Prehypertensive blood pressure range is a top number between 120 and 139 and a bottom number between 80 and 89. Blood pressures above 140 over 90 are considered high.