A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) has found that fluctuations in blood pressure can elevate the risk of dementia and vascular issues in older individuals.
This includes both short-term variations within 24 hours and fluctuations occurring over several days or weeks, which are associated with cognitive impairment.
The study also discovered that higher systolic blood pressure variations (the top number in blood pressure measurements) are connected to arterial stiffening, a condition linked to heart disease.
Lead author Daria Gutteridge, a PhD candidate from UniSA’s Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neuroscience Laboratory, emphasized that while high blood pressure is already recognized as a dementia risk factor, little attention has been given to blood pressure fluctuations.
Clinical treatments predominantly focus on hypertension without addressing blood pressure variability.
The research aimed to investigate the mechanisms linking blood pressure fluctuations and dementia. It involved 70 healthy older adults aged 60-80 with no cognitive impairment.
Their blood pressure was monitored, and they underwent cognitive testing, as well as assessments of arterial stiffness in the brain and arteries using specific medical techniques.
The study revealed that increased blood pressure variability, both within a day and over multiple days, was associated with reduced cognitive performance.
Moreover, higher variations in systolic blood pressure were linked to greater arterial stiffness in the arteries.
These results indicate that various types of blood pressure variability may involve different underlying biological mechanisms, and that both systolic and diastolic blood pressure variations are significant factors in the cognitive functioning of older adults.
Notably, these links were identified in older adults without any clinically significant cognitive impairment, suggesting that blood pressure variability could potentially serve as an early indicator or treatment target for cognitive issues.
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The research findings can be found in Cerebral Circulation – Cognition and Behavior.
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