Elevated BP at night, risk of Alzheimer’s may also increase

TUESDAY February 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Older men of which arterial pressure getting up at night may be at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a new study.

Blood pressure changes over 24 hours. It usually rises during the day and dives at night. But some people have an opposite pattern, called reverse dipping.

“Night is a critical time for brain health. For example, in animals, it has already been shown that the brain eliminates waste during to sleep, and that this clearance is compromised by abnormal blood pressure patterns, “said study co-author Christian Benedict. He is associate professor of neuroscience at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“Since the night is also a critical window of time for the health of the human brain, we examined whether arterial hypertension night, as seen in reverse diving, is associated with a dementia risk in older men, ”Benedict XVI said in an academic press release.

Blood pressure is one of several factors that can influence your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.

Benedict and his colleagues analyzed data from 1,000 older Swedish men who were followed up to 24 years. The men were in their early 60s when researchers began tracking them.

“The risk of being diagnosed with dementia was 1.64 times higher in men with reverse dipping than in those with normal dipping. Reverse dipping primarily increased the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.” said study co-author Xiao Tan, a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s neuroscience department.

The study was published on February 8 in the journal Hypertension.

Because the study group only included older men, “our results need to be replicated in older women,” Benedict noted.

The study authors said a next step in this line of research would be to examine whether taking antihypertensive drugs can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in older men.

More information

The US National Institute on Aging has more on Alzheimer’s risk factors.

SOURCE: Uppsala University, press release, February 8, 2021