It’s well known that blood pressure tends to rise from childhood into middle age, but scientists have long been uncertain about how it changes in older people.
Now, a team of researchers from the University of Exeter has found that in older adults, blood pressure starts to decline about 14 years before death. This discovery sheds light on an important aspect of elderly health and could help improve care for aging individuals.
In the past, doctors had observed that blood pressure seemed to drop in some older adults, and they often believed that this was due to treatments for high blood pressure.
To better understand this, the researchers decided to investigate whether these changes were truly related to treatments or if something else was going on.
The team analyzed the medical records of 46,634 people in Britain who had passed away at the age of 60 or older. This group included both healthy individuals and those with various health conditions, such as heart disease or dementia.
What they found was surprising: the decline in blood pressure happened not only in those who were sick but also in healthy individuals, suggesting that this drop is a natural part of aging.
The study showed that the most significant drops in blood pressure occurred in people who had conditions like dementia, heart failure, or significant weight loss later in life. Even those who had been treated for high blood pressure experienced this drop.
However, what was even more interesting is that healthy older adults—those without serious health conditions—also showed a long-term decline in their blood pressure.
This finding is important because it demonstrates that the decrease in blood pressure isn’t just a result of people with illnesses dying earlier. Instead, it seems to be a broader pattern that affects both healthy and sick individuals in their later years.
This could mean that changes in blood pressure are a normal part of the aging process, not just a sign of illness.
For doctors, this information is essential when treating older patients. If blood pressure naturally falls as people age, doctors may need to adjust treatments for elderly patients.
Instead of focusing solely on keeping blood pressure high enough, doctors might also need to monitor what a drop in blood pressure means for each patient.
However, this new understanding doesn’t mean that older people should stop managing high blood pressure or quit their medications.
The researchers caution that more studies are needed to figure out exactly why blood pressure drops in older adults and what it means for their health.
They emphasize that the findings should not be taken as a reason to stop treating high blood pressure, but rather as a new consideration in how doctors approach treatment for elderly patients.
For those interested in learning more about blood pressure, there are many other studies worth exploring.
For example, research suggests that drinking black tea may help lower blood pressure, while some high blood pressure medications could increase the risk of heart failure. Understanding these details can help individuals make better decisions about their health as they age.
This important research was led by Professor George Kuchel and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
It offers new insights into how blood pressure changes as people grow older and could lead to improved care and treatments for the elderly in the future.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about How to eat your way to healthy blood pressure and results showing that Modified traditional Chinese cuisine can lower blood pressure.
Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
