Part of the Women's Health Initiative study looking at the effect of hormone therapy on thinking and memory in postmenopausal women, involving over 1400 women, has found those who had high blood pressure at the start of the study (eight years earlier) had significantly higher amounts of white matter lesions. Damage to white matter seems to be an independent risk factor for dementia. The finding adds to evidence suggesting that preventing hypertension helps protect against dementia. High blood pressure is common in the U.S. — of the nearly 99,000 women enrolled in the WHI study, 37.8% had hypertension. You can watch the researcher discussing the findings at http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/19494.php?from=152110
Reference:
Kuller, L. H., Margolis, K. L., Gaussoin, S. A., Bryan, N. R., Kerwin, D., Limacher, M., et al. (2009). Relationship of Hypertension, Blood Pressure, and Blood Pressure Control With White Matter Abnormalities in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) MRI Trial. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 9999(9999). doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7176.2009.00234.x.
