ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512200071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press CHICAGO
Men with high blood pressure in midlife are much more likely to have trouble thinking and remembering things when they are old, a study found.
The finding adds yet another reason to control high blood pressure, already known to be a risk factor for stroke and heart disease.
The study involved 3,735 Japanese-American men who were enrolled in a heart study in the 1960s and tracked through the early 1990s. Their cognitive function - which includes remembering, thinking abstractly, making judgments and concentrating - was measured when the men were 78 on average.
Men with high systolic blood pressure - the higher of the two numbers in a blood-pressure reading - during midlife were almost 21/2 times more likely to have poor cognitive function in old age than men with low systolic blood pressure.
In fact, the higher the blood pressure in midlife, the greater the likelihood of trouble thinking and remembering in old age. For every 10-point increase in systolic blood pressure, there was a 9 percent increase in the risk of poor cognitive function later.
The study's lead author was Lenore J. Launer, a senior researcher with the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands. It was published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Kamal Masaki, a co-author, said brain scans performed on the patients since the study was written indicate that many of them suffered tiny ``silent'' strokes that cause no symptoms but can permanently impair thinking.
High blood pressure also may damage the brain in some ways that aren't clear to doctors, she said.
The study did not explore whether high blood pressure has any role in dementia-causing diseases such as Alzheimer's, she said. Dementia is a decline in all areas of mental ability.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB