Anatomy Refresher
The brain accounts for around 2 percent of body weight but
gets as much as twenty percent of blood pumped by the heart. There are about
370 miles of tiny “microvessels” in the brain. Those vessels deliver oxygen and
nutrients throughout the brain.
Blood Pressure and
Brain Health
Two recently-released studies reveal the importance of blood
pressure management to brain health. More importantly, the researchers
discovered the importance of managing blood pressure in one’s forties, or even
younger. Dr. Matthew Pase, PhD, and Research Fellow in Neurology at the
University of Boston School of Medicine, and Dr. Charles DeCarli, Professor of
Neurology at the University of California Davis, presented a paper at the
Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in July. (We’ve mentioned Pase
in previous newsletters and posts. He used the highly-regarded Framingham Heart
Study to produce the now famous, and famously disconcerting, study on the deleterious
affects of not only sugary soda, but also diet soda.) Pase and DeCarli used Framingham
data to determine whether high blood pressure experienced at younger ages had
lingering effects on the brain later in life.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Christopher Lane, MD and PhD, and
Jonathan Schott, MD and Professor of Neurology, both at University College
London, were studying the same topic, using a group of about 13,000
participants who have been part of a UK research project since their birth in
1946.
Both research teams reached the same conclusion: that high
blood pressure in the age range of forty-to-early-fifties can result in brain
damage that shows up around age 70. The
damage is done to those microvessels. Curiously, high BP that occurs in the
late fifties and beyond doesn’t seem to have as negative an effect. Link
to a summary of that research here.
An online search for “ideal blood pressure” and ways to
manage blood pressure will deliver all the information you could possibly want.
There are a number of non-medical ways to improve BP, as well as
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Have friends who need bigger brains? Please forward a link to this post
to them.
PS – If you haven’t received a copy of our clever,
fun-and-fact-filled 9 Simple Steps to
Build a Bigger Brain, send me an email gene@BigBrain.Place and we’ll get
it right to you.
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