A major reason to go on a WHOLE FOOD PLANT BASED DIET is to not even have high blood pressure at all. that way you will have no need for blood pressure medications and the perfusion to the brain, heart, and other vital organs will remain optimal. try it.....
I have been studying Alzheimer's and am totally bewildered by what i find.
I am beginning to wonder if Alzheimer's is influenced by materials that damage the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). The purpose of the BBBis to block toxic chemicals in our bodies from the brain where they can cause damage.
It seems that we have invented a family of surfactants or detergents and are using them in many applications. One application is to get medications to pass through the BBB into the brain . The medications are mixed with a surfactant called Polysorbate 80. which allows the medication to pass through the BBB into the brain.
I would think a chemical that could interfere with the body in this way should be used with caution but instead we also use Polysorbate 80 as a food additive. It is used mostly in Ice cream and salad dressings.
Is this OK? Does it make sense. I need some help in understanding if i should stay away from these surfactants or not. Others are used in face creams and cleaning detergents. Are they OK.
Any ideas?
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It good advice.
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MECHANISMS.
To be published, each of these epidemiological articles needs to posit at least one reasonable CAUSAL mechanism for the observed association. We aren't asking for proof of causality, but propose at least one reasonably-coherent possible mechanism. Otherwise, the article is useless fancy.
Here, for example. How—mechanistically—might lowering one's blood pressure prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's?
You got me. I cannot even conceive of a possible biological hypothesis on how one could cause the other.
Any ideas out there medical or biochemical community?
(Particularly since "the type of medicine used — diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers — made no difference.” And Alzheimer’s is characterized by the build-up of beta-amyloid and tau proteins in brain cells.)
For that matter, how can lowering blood pressure, simply a vascular property, substantially lower heart attack or ischemic stroke events? Mechanistically? It doesn't make sense (and I have studied fluid mechanics). Explain the process by which affecting one significantly affects the other. Thanks.
Without even a plausible mechanistic rational for the association, why should readers take the proffered advice?
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@SRP:
High blood pressure (hypertension) results in higher velocity of blood transiting through the arteries, including cerebrovascular arteries (those in the brain). Imagine water coming out of a hose. Put your thumb over the spout, and the pressure dramatically increases. This is what happens to your brain with high blood pressure.
The sheer stress of higher blood pressure damages arterioles in the brain (and elsewhere in the body) and the sensitive tissue of the brain. As brain tissue is damaged over time, this increases one’s risk of dementia. Anti-hypertensives reduce the pressure of blood transiting through sensitive cerebral and neuronal tissue, thereby reducing dementia risk.
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@Jamie Richey -
Putting your thumb over the spout, and the pressure dramatically increases, yes--but then the velocity of blood transiting the hose STOPS or DECREASES, not increases. You have the hydrodynamic effect going in the WRONG direction.
Greater resistance to flow in a closed hydrodynamic system (such as plaque build up in arteries, for example) results in LOWER flow velocity, not higher.
(And since exercise and high activity levels dramatically increase blood flow and blood velocity, then these must be catastrophic for dementia and cardiovascular health, right?)
Besides, this study claimed an even higher association with Alzheimer's disease, as I mentioned, which as far as we know is a biochemically-caused disease, not a physically-caused disease.
In any case, the author needs to at least present some plausible mechanism. Otherwise it is just magical thinking.
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@Jamie Richey -
Another thing. You state that "High blood pressure (hypertension) RESULTS IN higher velocity of blood transiting through the arteries..." [Capitalization added.]
Blood pressure—qua pressure—doesn't "result in," doesn't CAUSE, other effects (mostly). Blood pressure is just a resultant physical property, like temperature. Rather, it is other biological things that CAUSE blood pressure. Pressure is a resultant here, not a cause. It is "caused by."
(In this case, "caused by" the Force of the heart contraction against a certain Volume of an Incompressible blood fluid through a [largely] fixed-volume piping System of a certain frictional Resistance.)
Yes, long-term blood pressure—qua pressure—can is a few cases CAUSE harm, such as to delicate blood vessels in the eyes or to kidney vasculature, but be the primary CAUSE of heart attacks and ischemic strokes? How?
Much more likely is that observed hypertension is simply a co-resultant of underlying biological pathologies. A co-resultant, not a cause. So "curing" it won't substantially prevent ACIs or ischemic strokes. This is why salt-reduction advice is so wrongheaded and will do more damage than good, for example.
We need to think clearly and precisely about these things.
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"The benefits of reducing blood pressure to lower the risk for cardiovascular disease are well known . . . ." Sheer idiocy. Cultured ignorance.
High blood pressure is a symptom OF cardiovascular disease. It doesn't just appear out of thin air. If you HAVE high blood pressure, you already HAVE cardiovascular disease!
Taking blood pressure medication to "manage" HBP is only managing a SYMPTOM of your already present cardiovascular disease. Taking expensive HBP medications (for the rest of your life) does absolutely NOTHING to reduce the CAUSE of your cardiovascular disease, which is your lousy, lousy diet.
Now ask yourself, "Why would a doctor choose to prescribe an expensive medication to a patient (that he'll need to take for the rest of his life) to manage a symptom of a disease rather than to educate the patient as to the lifestyle changes that are completely in his control that he could undertake to stop and reverse the disease itself?"
Take all the time you need.
Hint: The physician in question--your physician--is not being taken out to lavish dinners twelve times a year by a sales rep from the local cruciferous vegetable growers association.
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@Greg Gerner -
I agree heartily with the first three paragraphs of your comment. In the majority of cases, high blood pressure is not a cause of disease, but rather is just a symptom of disease. (Sustained hypertension can mechanistically cause damage to microvasculature, of the eyes, or kidney vasculature, for example, or hasten hemorrhagic strokes or aneurysm ruptures. But cause heart attacks and ischemic strokes? How?) Hypertension is mostly a co-product of underlying pathology, not a cause itself. (Though the recent, important Hygis Trial may lead to new understanding...). Which is why salt-reduction advice is so misguided, for example.
I disagree with your second point, however. Hypertension medications are now generic and very, very cheap. We have allowed horrible Big-Pharma incentive structures for many medications—all those you see advertised on TV, for example—but blood pressure medications are not one of them.
P.S. Always be sure to take your BP meds at bedtime, not in the morning. Very, very important.
www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/well/live/blood-pressure-drugs-medications-hypertension-bedtime-night-morning-time.html
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@Greg Gerner You have hit the nail right on its head. When will people wake up? It's time the medical profession wake up and admit lifestyle is the key to health and disease prevention!!
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@Greg Gerner Just a note: my blood pressure meds are not expensive at all.
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Meanwhile, I see reports of research that there is an association between chronically low blood pressure and the development of Alzheimer's ( https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-017-0262-x ).
Confused (tho not, I hope, chronically) in Boston
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@Simon -
Nice catch.
Their conclusions: "Our data are in line with those in previous studies demonstrating an inverse association between dementia and systolic blood pressure in individuals over the age of 60 years."
An "inverse association" means the higher their blood pressure, the lower their chance of dementia.
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These "results" are barely statistically significant. Epidemiologists don't take 12% and 16% differences seriously, for good reason (unknown biases). This isn't like cigarette smoking which increases the rate of cancer by about 1000%.
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Or, change your lifestyle.
Eat a healthy diet, exercise, don’t smoke or drink alcohol, maintain a healthy weight.
And one of the healthiest, if not the healthiest diet, is a whole plant food diet. Avoid animal products and processed food. Eat lots of veggies and fruits, beans and WHOLE grains, and in moderation, nuts and seeds. Cook from home — because there are few dining options serving healthy whole plant food meals.
Then, and only then, if that is not sufficient, consider meds.
So, adopt a healthy lifestyle first, with drugs only if needed. Because as it stands now, a drug prescription FIRST is a permission slip for an unhealthy lifestyle.
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Importantly, high blood pressure was defined in the reference article to systolic: less than or equal to 140; diastolic: less than or equal to 90 mm Hg.
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@David Hughes Don't you mean more than or equal to?
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"may" is the operative word in the first sentence in this article... I see no proven evidence indicated in the article that there's link between high blood pressure and dementia. High blood pressure medications are often overprescribed. Diet and exercise should be part of a treatment plan rather than a suggestion from doctors.
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Also incorporating diet and exercise may also diminish the usage of medicine in the long run. One of my older cousins was Told she was hypertension at around 70 years old and she started implementing a more healthy lifestyle and did her wonders. Not everything should be tied down to medicine. And exercise and an overall healthy lifestyle has a great domino effect to delaying Alzheimer’s.
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@Jennifer So true. Poor diet and lack of exercise leads to high blood pressure and other illnesses in the first place.
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