Posted on 03/17/2024 10:26:15 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
A study provides compelling evidence for clinical practice to direct efforts toward preventing white matter damage in individuals with hypertension in order to protect against cognitive decline and dementia.
Gray matter is where the brain cells exist, whereas white matter constitutes the network of nerve fibers that provides the communication connection between different areas of gray matter.
The study, led by Dr. Jing Du, found that compared with gray matter, white matter is more vulnerable to raised blood pressure.
"Because gray matter has a greater amount of small blood vessels, and therefore a greater supply of blood compared to white matter, we wanted to see if white matter is more susceptible to damage from reduced blood flow caused by high blood pressure," says Du.
The researchers looked at brain scans from nearly 40,000 people with varying levels of blood pressure, ranging from normal to high. They found that as blood pressure increased, both gray and white matter showed signs of aging, with white matter appearing to age faster.
The findings suggest that memory and thinking problems are more likely to occur as a result of high blood pressure's impact on white matter, rather than gray matter.
The researchers also investigated how different aspects of blood pressure affect brain aging. They found that systolic blood pressure had a linear relationship with both gray and white matter aging—meaning as blood pressure increases, so does brain aging. On the other hand, diastolic blood pressure had a U-shaped relationship, suggesting an optimal range for maintaining brain health.
The study suggests that white matter in the brain is particularly vulnerable to high blood pressure. To preserve brain health, it is crucial to keep blood pressure within an optimal range.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
This points to lowering blood pressure to preserve the connectivity functions of white matter, rather than targeting brain cells, alone.
If you can get your brain to heal a bit, you might find some memories or abilities can come back to you, because you may not have yet lost them—only their connections were damaged.
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Health / life BUMP!
Seriously, how does “high blood pressure” REDUCE blood flow? It cannot. However, if the arteries are NARROWING due to something else, then high blood pressure is the body’s compensation trying to keep the blood quantity going.
Thus blood pressure is a symptom of something that can cause dementia, but reducing blood pressure by drugs would only FURTHER reduce the amount of blood getting through, making dementia more likely.
“High blood pressure’s impact on white matter...”
More DEI.
I think you are reading this wrong.
It is true that high blood pressure can result from restrictions in our body. In this case, they were noting that, because white matter has fewer blood vessels/capillaries, what high blood pressure you have (for any reason—even drug or hormone induced), hurts white matter the most.
In this case, the blood is getting there, but because the vessels/capillaries are few, it impacts the white matter more because there is less diffusion of pressure. Having more available vessels and capillaries helps to spread the pressure problem across more area. With less area to expand, what there is is more impacted. We want our vessels and capillaries to be plentiful to deliver nutrients, but these do clog up, over time.
You know your physics. Medical Doctors are not good in physics, thermo-dynamucs or fluid mechanics.
And they keep defining high blood pressure down, in order to get more people on the drugs. At one time 140/90 was considered normal.
This is a good video on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPsOX3S3mCE
“Seriously, how does “high blood pressure” REDUCE blood flow? It cannot.”
Not immediately, in “realtime”. But over time can contribute to plaques which cause friction and narrowing and hence reduce blood flow.
I have great blood pressure. 20/30.
Or is that my eyesight?
How does blood pressure create plaque? I there any evidence it does?
OR
Does plaque create blood pressure? If so, is it the ONLY thing that creates blood pressure?
“blood pressure’s impact on white . . .”
BP be raciss.
Yes, clogged blood vessels are A - not the, but a - cause of high blood pressure. Are they the only cause? If not, then do the other causes result in any less blood arriving on site?
For example, if the main aorta does not expand, the systolic blood pressure will be high while the diastolic blood pressure remains unchanged. This has no impact on blood flow anywhere else. So...how does that impact capillaries?
And how does treatment of high blood pressure affect blood flow? If your problem is clogged arteries, and you reduce blood pressure, it requires LESS BLOOD to flow thru the artery. Pressure times diameter equals flow. How does less blood arriving help with starved cells?
Have you then treated the problem, or masked it - and by masking it, made it worse?
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