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Louise Chang, MD Researchers say the early changes seen with
higher blood pressure may set the stage for problems with
thinking, memory, and dementia down the road. “This is an
important finding,” says Paul Rosenberg, MD, associate professor
of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Md. “There’s a suggestion here that we
should be treating blood pressure more aggressively in younger
people,” says Rosenberg, who was not involved in the research.
High Blood Pressure and Brain Changes The study used magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) to take a snapshot of the brains of 579
healthy adults who were participating in the third generation of
the long-running Framingham Heart Study. People in the study
ranged in age from 19 to 63, but on average they were around 39.
Doctors measured each person’s blood pressure twice and took the
average of the numbers. Those who h