HIGH blood pressure could lead to dementia by damaging parts of the brains, researchers have found.
For the first time, scientists identified the areas of the organ that can lead to the memory-robbing condition when impaired.
They used MRI scans to determine how high blood pressure affected parts of the brain they thought were responsible for memory and thinking skills.
Follow-up tests on Italian patients with hypertension confirmed these areas had a direct effect on whether they would develop dementia.
The team said the discovery could pave the way to new preventative treatments for the condition.
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Tomasz Guzik, of the University of Edinburgh, said: “We hope that our findings may help us to develop new ways to treat cognitive impairment in people with high blood pressure.
“By looking at these specific regions of the brain, we may be able to predict who will develop memory loss and dementia faster in the context of high blood pressure.”
He said this could help researchers develop “precision medicine”, targeted at patients most at risk.
One in three Brits lives with high blood pressure, while more than 850,000 have dementia.
Previous research has shown hypertension can increase the risk of developing the condition, particularly vascular dementia that is caused by poor circulation to the brain.
The latest study, published in the European Heart Journal, used scans from over 30,000 Brits’ brains.
Looking at genetic data, they tested whether blood pressure was actually the cause of changes to specific parts of the brain.
They found changes to nine parts of the brain were related to higher blood pressure and worse cognitive function.
The parts included a round structure in the base of the front of the brain, responsible for regulating movement and influencing various types of learning.
Dr Mateusz Siedlinski, of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, said: “Our study has, for the first time, identified specific places in the brain that are potentially causally associated with high blood pressure and cognitive impairment.”
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