Blood pressure drugs can dramatically cut the risk of Alzheimer’s, scientists reported yesterday.
The drugs both prevent the disease occurring and slow its progression - raising hopes of a new weapon in the fight against dementia.
The effect was ‘striking’, cutting the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by more than a third, according to a U.S. study.
Researchers looked at angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARBs, which are normally prescribed as a second choice treatment to patients unable to tolerate ACE inhibitors, another class of blood pressure drug.
What both types of drugs do is interfere with angiotensin - a chemical in the body that constricts blood vessels. They allow the vessels to relax and widen so more blood can flow through them.
And that can help cut high blood pressure - which in midlife is known to be associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s itself is closely linked to damaged arteries and the appearance of a type of protein deposit in the brain.
Scientists examined the records of about six million patients treated for high blood pressure between 2001 and 2006.
Those taking ARBs were 35 to 40 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia than patients on different medications.
Patients already suffering from Alzheimer’s when they started taking ARBs had a 45 per cent reduced chance of developing delirium, being admitted to a nursing home, or dying prematurely during the period of the study.
Those who had experienced strokes before or during the course of their illness appeared to benefit most from the drugs, a Chicago conference on Alzheimer’s was told.
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March 12th, 2010 at 7:47 am
People with occasionally high blood pressure are more at risk of stroke than those with consistently high readings, research suggests.
Current guidelines focus on measuring average blood pressure levels to spot and prevent the chance of a stroke.
But research suggests doctors should no longer ignore variation in test results and give drugs that produce the most steady blood pressure levels.
The Stroke Association called for national guidelines to be overhauled.
In the first of the series of studies published in The Lancet, UK and Swedish researchers looked at the variability in blood pressure readings at doctors’ checks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8562830.stm
May 27th, 2010 at 1:34 am
About half of the 65 million people in the United States who have high blood pressure now have it under control, up from 27 percent two decades ago, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
But the overall rate of Americans who have high blood pressure has not changed in recent years, reflecting the need for better prevention efforts, they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Institute of Medicine earlier this year declared high blood pressure, or hypertension, a “neglected disease” that costs the U.S. health system $73 billion a year.
High blood pressure, or too much force exerted by blood as it moves against vessel walls, is easily preventable through diet, exercise and drugs, yet it is the second-leading cause of death in the United States.
The IOM, one of the National Academies of Sciences, urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the amount of salt added to foods to help Americans cut their high sodium intake, which can lead to high blood pressure, kidney failure and strokes.
Dr. Brent Egan of the Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues studied changes in hypertension rates, awareness, treatment and control among nearly 43,000 U.S. adults over two periods — 1988-1994 and 1999-2008.
People in the group reported whether they were taking blood pressure control medications.
The team defined high blood pressure as being at least 140 for the systolic or top reading, and 90 for diastolic or lower the lower reading. Normal blood pressure is considered to be 120 over 80 or lower.
June 21st, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Researchers believe a drug used to lower blood pressure could be even more effective against Alzheimer’s disease than they previously thought.
People taking angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were up to 50% less likely to develop dementia than those taking other blood pressure drugs.
Combined with another drug, ARBs also protected against further deterioration among those already with the disease.
The study of more than 800,000 men appears in the British Medical Journal.
The team from the Boston University School of Medicine presented initial results from the study two years ago, but further work suggests that ARBs – normally prescribed only to patients who cannot tolerate the more standard ACE inhibitors – confer greater protection than had been thought.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8453885.stm