Researchers found that patients undergoing intensive treatment, including medication, exercise, and adherence to a healthy lifestyle, are less likely to develop dementia compared to others.
World Health Organization statistics indicate that the number of people with dementia reached approximately 57 million worldwide in 2021, while experts emphasize that this disease is not necessarily a natural consequence of aging.
The study explains that addressing multiple risk factors such as hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, social isolation, and high blood pressure can prevent or delay the onset of nearly half of dementia cases.
Researchers emphasize that simply controlling blood pressure may reduce the risk of developing the disease by up to 15%.
Professor Jiang He, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a participant in the study’s preparation, said: “Blood pressure-lowering treatment can prevent dementia in patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure,” stressing the importance of applying this procedure widely worldwide to alleviate the increasing burden of this disease.
The Importance of Blood Pressure Management
The results of this study were published in the journal “Nature Medicine,” where more than 33,000 people from rural areas in China participated in the experiment, all of whom were over forty years old and suffered from high blood pressure.
Half of the participants were provided with intensive treatment that included free or inexpensive medications, lifestyle modification guidelines, and home blood pressure monitoring devices, while the other half received traditional care without these additional measures.
After a four-year follow-up, researchers observed 668 people developing dementia in the group that received intensive treatment compared to 734 people in the other group, reflecting a 15% decrease in incidence rates, in addition to a 16% decrease in cases of cognitive impairment not accompanied by dementia.
Professor Tara Spires-Jones, Director of the Center for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, commented that the study “provides further evidence of the importance of managing blood pressure and cardiovascular risks to protect the brain as we age.”
(Agencies)
