Reducing high blood pressure protects the heart and reduces the risk of dementia.

A Phase III clinical trial involving nearly 34,000 participants aged 40 and older living in rural China with untreated hypertension has shown that lowering high blood pressure reduces the risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

The results, published in Nature Medicine, demonstrate the potential importance of Carry out more intensive blood pressure control in patients with hypertension to reduce the global burden of dementia.

The research also found that people with untreated hypertension have a 42% higher risk of developing dementia over their lifetime than healthy study participants.

The global number of people with dementia is expected to increase from 57.4 million in 2019 to 152.8 million in 2050. , and that the greatest impact will be in low- and middle-income countries.

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Previous studies suggest that lifestyle interventions, such as following a healthy diet and exercising regularly, may be the most effective way to reduce the rising global incidence of dementia.

To further explore the relationship between high blood pressure and dementia, the UT Southwestern Medical Center (Texas, USA) trial studied the effectiveness of an intervention led by non-physician community health professionals (so-called "village doctors") on controlling blood pressure, dementia, and cognitive decline in 33,995 patients.

The patients were 40 years or older, lived in rural areas of China, and had untreated hypertension.

In the intervention group, 17,407 patients received antihypertensive medication and health education on home blood pressure monitoring and lifestyle changes (such as weight loss, dietary sodium reduction, and alcohol reduction). Medication adherence was also monitored.

Patients in the control group received training on blood pressure monitoring and had their blood pressure measured at a health center.

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Over 48 months, the authors observed that the intervention group achieved better blood pressure control, with a greater number of patients reaching target levels than the control group.

Intensive blood pressure control substantially reduced the risk of all-cause dementia by 15% and the risk of cognitive decline by 16%.

The findings suggest that proven interventions aimed at reducing blood pressure could help reduce the overall incidence and the impact of dementia, and that this intervention should be widely adopted and scaled up to reduce the global burden of dementia.

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