People with high blood pressure, or hypertension, during midlife are at a greater risk of developing dementia, irrespective of their blood pressure later on, a long-term follow-up study suggests. The study, “Association of Midlife to Late-Life Blood Pressure Patterns With Incident Dementia,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Increasing evidence suggests that high blood pressure in middle age — from 45 to 65 years — may be a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia.
