Hamburg, January 18: A new study from the Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health reveals that high blood pressure could pose a bigger threat for women developing dementia by augmenting white matter abnormalities in the brain.
The findings are based on data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS).
Lewis Kuller, M. D., Dr. P. H., professor of epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, commented, “Hypertension is very common in the U. S. and many other countries, and can lead to serious health problems. Proper control of blood pressure, which remains generally poor, may be very important to prevent dementia as women age”.
Data from WHIMS, which involved a subgroup of the 1403 women enrolled in WHI, analyzed the effect of hormone therapy on thinking and memory. All the women in WHIMS were 65 or older.
The output revealed that women, who, at the beginning of the study, were hypertensive i. e. showed a blood pressure of 140/90 or more, significantly had more white matter lesions on their MRI after eight years as compared to subjects with standard blood pressure.
Study co-author Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller said, “Based on our findings, we would encourage women to maintain their blood pressure at normal levels, which may reduce their risk of dementia”.
——-Agencies