Here’s a fun party icebreaker! What’s the number one risk factor for death in the world? I’ll guarantee that almost no one gets the right answer – which is, high blood pressure (hypertension). And yet this silent killer lays waste to the lives of nine million people every year in the UK, and its victims are becoming ever younger.
An alarming one-fifth of 24-32 year olds have high blood pressure; one third of men and one quarter of women aged 40 have it and by the age of 70, we’re expected to have it as if it is an inevitable part of aging — and most of us do. It kills so many because it plays a part in a range of fatal conditions, including heart attacks, aneurysms, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure. What’s particularly alarming is that damage starts at only small increases above normal levels. Brain scientists have recently made the startling discovery that by age 40, the brain of a person with clinically high blood pressure of 140/90, looks seven years older than the brain of a person with normal blood pressure. The Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of California, Davis, USA show that even slightly raised blood pressure, if persistent, causes brain injury and premature brain aging. The higher the systolic blood pressure, the more severe the harm. These findings are consistent with previous research that links hypertension to brain damage. But this is the first study to show an association beginning so early in life and inflicting the type of injury that causes cognitive decline and dementia. In other words, brain damage caused by high blood pressure in our 30s and 40s causes dementia later in life. Dr Charles DeCarli, senior author of this study and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center says: “The message here is really clear: people can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn’t necessarily be thinking about it. The people in our study were cognitively normal, so a lack of symptoms doesn’t mean anything.”