The treatment with Blood Pressure Medication can improve the blood flow in the brain region that is causing Alzheimer’s disease. The clinical trial gives these findings, and the researchers don’t know if the outcomes can be beneficial for patients. The clinical trial and the results appear in the journal Hypertension. For the clinical study, 44 patients with moderate Alzheimer’s disease symptoms have participated.

The patients’ selection was random, and they were given either a Blood Pressure medication called Nilvadipine or placebo pills for around six months. The patients with real medicine showed a 20% increase in blood flow to the Hippocampus. The Hippocampus is the brain structure that involves memory and learning, and it’s the first area that Alzheimer’s disease is damaging.

Unfortunately, the researchers say that the study is too small and for a short-term to know for sure if the improved blood flow is having effects on symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Jurgen Claassen, who is the lead author of the study, says that it is essential to have further studies that can answer this question and focus on the person with early Alzheimer’s.

Blood Pressure Medication Might Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease

Also, the trial is trying to see if Nilvadipine is improving the memory of patients with Alzheimer’s and their thinking skills. But they don’t have evidence if the medication is helping or not. On the other hand, Claassen says that some signs exist on the patients with an early-stage Alzheimer’s. Thanks to that, a new long study begins with the patients, and the focus was for the long term. The findings of the new study show that it is a heart-brain connection.

Moreover, the same risk factors that people have for heart diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity, or diabetes, are the same risk factors for dementia. But when speaking about Alzheimer’s, the researchers don’t know if the blood pressure control will help patients. Claassen says that controlling high blood pressure is important because it’s causing damages to blood vessels that supply the brain. So, if there is proper circulation to the Hippocampus, then the cells will function better.

Finally, the patients with real medication have a blood pressure lower with eleven points compared with the people on placebo drugs. So these findings are safe for the patients and to treat the high blood pressure, and it’s increasing the brain’s blood supply for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

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