[INVERSE] IT’S TIME for doctors to "aggressively" address high blood pressure when advising young adults, say the researchers behind a new preliminary analysis. This study suggests an association between having high blood pressure in early adulthood and an increased risk of brain changes later in life.
These changes can cause cognitive decline, which is when the brain has more difficulty with abilities like memory, awareness, judgment, and mental acuity. Two out of three Americans will experience some degree of cognitive decline by the time they are 70, but studies suggest disadvantaged groups experience the decline at a younger age — and in turn, experience more years impaired.
Prior studies also suggest Black individuals are more likely than white individuals to develop hypertension, and "have significantly faster decline in cognition," explains lead study author Christina Lineback, a vascular neurology fellow at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. There is new evidence that this may begin in young adults, she explains.
"We do not completely understand why this is," Lineback tells me. "We hope to better identify when and which risk factors lead to faster cognitive decline. We believe this could help to narrow the gap in racial health disparities in brain and heart disease." |