--- title: How Lowering Your Blood Pressure Affects Alzheimer’s Risk description: For the first time, there's evidence that a behavior change—lowering blood pressure—may help to lower the risk of developing dementia. canonical: https://time.com/5347592/blood-pressure-lower-risk-dementia/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-25T14:53:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:08.437Z article:section: Health og:title: There May Finally Be Something You Can Do to Lower Your Risk of Dementia og:description: Doing this may help protect your brain og:url: https://time.com/5347592/blood-pressure-lower-risk-dementia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta941f81e1acc2581/69888017196cf4d4b303a9b3/high-blood-pressure-heart-energy-drinks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Blood pressure gauge, close-up og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There May Finally Be Something You Can Do to Lower Your Risk of Dementia twitter:description: Doing this may help protect your brain twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta941f81e1acc2581/69888017196cf4d4b303a9b3/high-blood-pressure-heart-energy-drinks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There May Finally Be Something You Can Do to Lower Your Risk of Dementia > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=059ff9a4-1e57-489f-902e-428df3a4e5d7&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Alzheimer's New Hope [Watch (HLS stream): Alzheimer's New Hope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Dz6EZRwJ.m3u8) (6:48)  _Published 2018-02-14. TIME follows a patient as he begins a drug trial that could offer groundbreaking treatment of Alzheimer's_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 25, 2018 2:53 PM UTC  Blood pressure gauge, close-up Blood pressure gauge, close-up Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 25, 2018 2:53 PM UTC Most people are familiar with the steps they can take to lower their risk of heart disease and cancer. Choosing your diet carefully, exercising and quitting smoking have all been shown to lower the risk of these diseases. But when it comes to dementia — including dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease — scientists haven’t found many actionable steps that people can take to lower their risk. Genes play a prominent role in who develops dementia, especially Alzheimer’s, and age is also a dominant factor in the degenerative brain disorder, but neither are under human control. Now, in a presentation at the [annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association](https://alz.org/aaic/overview.asp) in Chicago, researchers report some of the most encouraging evidence yet for one risk factor that people may be able to control to lower their risk of dementia: their blood pressure. In an extension of the [SPRINT study](http://time.com/4104859/blood-pressure-heart-health/) which looked at how low blood pressure could prevent heart disease, scientists also found that lower blood pressure is linked to a lower risk of dementia. In the [SPRINT Memory and Cognition in Decreased Hypertension](https://www.wakehealth.edu/Research/Gerontology-and-Geriatrics/Kulynych-Center/SPRINT-MIND.htm) (SPRINT-MIND) study, more than 9,300 elderly people who had had heart problems or were at higher risk of developing heart disease were randomly assigned to lower their blood pressure to either less than 120mmHg or 140 mmHg systolic. ([Current guidelines](http://time.com/5022440/high-blood-pressure-guidelines/), revised in 2017 after the study began, now recommend that most people keep the upper number, or systolic pressure, under 130mmHg.) People who lowered their blood pressure to under 120mmHg lowered their risk of both [mild cognitive impairment (MCI)](https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/alzheimers-diagnostic-guidelines-updated-first-time-decades), the gateway to dementia, or probable dementia by 15%, compared to people who lowered their blood pressure to 140mmHg. “Controlling blood pressure is not only good for the heart [but good for the brain](http://time.com/4447997/untangling-alzheimers/),” says Dr. Jeff Williamson, chief of geriatric medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and one of the lead investigators in the trial. “This is the first intervention of any kind that has been proven in a randomized controlled trial to reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment.” Williamson notes that the study did not confirm that lowering blood pressure can lower risk of dementia, but that may be because dementia takes longer to develop than MCI, and the study only followed people for an average of three years — long enough to detect probable dementia but not necessarily dementia, which can take longer to develop. Still, it’s the first time that scientists have found something that can lower MCI risk in a rigorous, randomized controlled trial, and that could help reduce the number of people who might be affected by both MCI and even dementia in coming decades. “This provides great encouragement for people to say, yes, make sure your blood pressure is well controlled, because right now it’s one of the things you can do to prevent mild cognitive impairment. And this opens the door to testing more interventions.” “This is a very big deal,” says Maria Carillo, chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Association. “Now we have evidence that lowering blood pressure is linked to brain health as well. Before, it was strongly suggested, but now we know from a study that it can make a difference.” For people who participated in the study, like 74-year old Margaret Daffodil Graham from North Carolina, the findings are a welcome relief. Diagnosed with hypertension while in her 30s, Graham has been taking medication to control her blood pressure ever since. She joined the study to ensure that her blood pressure was monitored and under control, and is reassured that doing so may keep her brain intact as well. “My thing is, don’t take my mind,” she says. “Just let my mind be okay. I can deal with my body failing, but without your mind, there’s nothing. So I do what I need to do to keep my body fit, and hopefully not lose my mind.” As part of her regimen to control her blood pressure, Graham takes long walks, does her own yard work in the summer and makes regular trips to the local YMCA for weight training to maintain muscle strength. For people like Graham, the study could make a difference in lowering their risk of developing dementia in coming years. Williamson says that the Alzheimer’s field has been frustrated in recent years by disappointing studies of new drugs that doctors hoped would be the first to actually treat the disease and slow or even reverse the damage to brain nerves that cause memory loss, disorientation and other problems with higher thinking skills. The possibility that lowering blood pressure, which is something that people can control, might lower the risk of developing dementia and even Alzheimer’s is potentially groundbreaking. Another study, published in _Neurology_ a week earlier, supported the idea that [controlling blood pressure may affect dementia](http://time.com/5334859/high-blood-pressure-alzheimers-disease/). In that study, researchers at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center found that people with higher blood pressure tended to have more brain lesions, or areas of dead brain tissue, that have lost their blood supply, as well as tangles of tau protein, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, which the researchers found when they performed autopsies on the participants. That data, taken together with the latest trial results, supports the idea that keeping blood pressure under control may be a way that some people can slow the deterioration of the brain that can lead to dementia and even Alzheimer’s. “I like to illustrate the idea to my patients with the analogy of air pressure in our tires,” says Williamson. “You don’t want to have too low or too high pressure, or you will damage the tires. The same goes for blood pressure; over time high blood pressure can damage the walls of very fragile arteries that deliver blood to the brain and other organs. And that can produce some of the things we see associated with dementia — inflammation and small strokes. More research needs to be done to explore the connection, especially since the volunteers in the study all have a history of heart problems, so it’s not clear how generalizable the results are to people without other heart problems but who might have high blood pressure. But the results an encouraging sign that finally, there may be something people can do to help their brain, body and dementia risk. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Joanne and I both went to the University of Michigan. I did not know here there. She was already hooked up with another guy. [ LAUGH ] But as soon as I saw her, I wanted to know that woman. And so, Peter came and started talking to me, and he said would you like to come to a party with me. And I said no, I am sorry, I can't. And I said no, I am sorry, I can't all the way the party. Most probably the closest thing to loving at first sight. When we got closer, and closer together, and decided to marry. And then have a child, and- That was 57 years ago, so it's beginning to look like it might work out. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You are more worried about me than I am. Well I find that, Peter, it gets frustrated Easily. More so? Yes, and you know his frustration comes out in anger if something doesn't work out really well. That's been happening. And a little more memory trouble you think? Yes, I do. When I found out that I had Alzheimer's it was definitely a big shock. Yeah, it's nothing you can fool around with. Knowing more about it, there isn't any solution at this point in time. It was a hard day, but then we decided, okay, now we know. What can we do about it? This medicine with a funny name called Aducanumab was developed with a really interesting aproach where they looked at older people who had lived a long life And either didn't develop Alzheimer's or had a very slow form of Alzheimer's, something that's retarding Alzheimer's or protecting against Alzheimer's. And they identified a number of antibodies that might fight the Alzheimer process. What's been so exciting about it is that this medicine seem to slow down memory loss hospital. Do you like to color at all? Yeah. We've got some coloring books. This study, we've been doing this for probably two and a half year and people there randomized. They receive the medicine or they're receiving placebo and they won't know and the nurse and the investigators here won't know either. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Do you guys know what infusion number this is? 30. I started in November, so one infusion a month would be ten. Is that right? Yeah, November, December, January, Feburary, March, April, May, June, July, August That's how I do it. [ LAUGH ] It's unchartered teritory for me so you don't really know where this is gonn lead you or you'll end up and surely there has to be a cure, that's my attitude and if I can help to Natures the discovery so much the better. We designed this- So awesome. This we did for dance platterware. Actually this are- It's got a natural band in the back for your hand this way when you cut with the knife. Peter has never had a great memory but obviously things were getting worse and in terms of work, you could see the difference in this trying to remember where job was left off and what needed to be done. And the interesting part about it is it never diminish Computers design sense and his ability to be creative. Now he may not be able to tell you when the next meeting was or what was to be discussed in the meeting. But as far as design was concerned, he never lost that. [ UNKNOWN ] left here? Yes, yes, sweetie The way we [ INAUDIBLE ]. I can't specifically remember a point in time. It seems like a slow evolution. I was excellent with the sense of direction when driving. That's just gone away now. I don't wanna lose my driving skills. I mean I wanna have that independence. The study lasts for four years. And, so it's now been what, 15 months. Peter is still driving but only with me in the car. So that has changed in that we're together 24 / 7. If I go to have my hair cut, Peter comes with me. If he goes to have his hair cut, I go with him. And it does, really, I have to say, it does increase the bond. The adversity can really, sometimes, make you closer. Hi, Dr. [ UNKNOWN ], how are you? Hello, hi, how are you doing? Good to see you. Thanks for doing all these wonderful things. We're happy to participate. That's great. Happy to further the cause. Yeah, I feel this actually As just participating is a breakthrough . >> Yeah. Yeah . >> Because people thought Alzheimers forget about it, can't do anything about it, not even worth trying . >> Right . >> And so what we are doing is changing the narrative . >> Now, I understsood from whern we first talked to you , >> Yes . >> That after 18 months of Peter having started the program , >> Right . >> That we then find out whether or not Peter has been getting a placebo or [ CROSSTALK ] I'm glad you brought that up, so I can clarify that. [ LAUGH ] Well, what is true, after 18 months, you can continue receiving the medicine every month as you are now, but you're guaranteed to get the medicine. You won't find out your original assignment until the data's reported for the whole trial. I see. Okay. Then you'll know. That's when the results become available. We won't know until then, that's how it works. Yeah, okay. Peter says that he's always the glass is half full kind of guy. And I'm always the glass is half empty kind of woman. So, I worry a lot that he's getting a placebo, but we really don't know. Well, I feel like I have a responsibility to be in the trial, and yeah, I would love to be the beneficiary. But that wasn't the Main reason. Well I certainly have area expectation that there will be some happy ending to it. It may not be a cure, but that at the end of the four years, Peter is still Peter. 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