High blood pressure in your 30s may cause poor brain health in your 70s

According to a new UC Davis study, high blood pressure in your 30s is linked to worse brain health around 75, especially in males. Published in JAMA Network Open, the research compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of older adults with high blood pressure between the ages of 30 to 40 with older adults who had normal blood pressure.
Researchers found that the high blood pressure group had significantly lower regional brain volumes and worse white matter integrity. The study also revealed that the negative brain changes in some regions - such as decreased grey matter volume and frontal cortex volume - were stronger in men. They note the differences may be related to the protective benefits of estrogen before menopause.
First author Kristen M. George, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, “Treatment for dementia is extremely limited, so identifying modifiable risk and protective factors over the life course is key to reducing disease burden. High blood pressure is an incredibly common and treatable risk factor associated with dementia. This study indicates hypertension status in early adulthood is important for brain health decades later.”
The researchers looked at data from 427 participants from the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (KHANDLE) study and the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR). This provided them with health data from 1964 to 1985 for a diverse cohort of older Asian, Black, Latino and white adults. They obtained two blood pressure readings from when the participants were between the ages of 30 to 40. This allowed them to determine if they had been hypertensive, transitioning to hypertensive or had normal blood pressure in young adulthood.
"This study truly demonstrates the importance of early life risk factors, and that to age well, you need to take care of yourself throughout life -- heart health is brain health," said Rachel Whitmer, senior author of the study. "We are excited to be able to continue following these participants and to uncover more about what one can do in early life to set yourself up for healthy brain aging in late life," she added.