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High blood pressure damages brain long before old age
...the brain integrity of a 40-year-old with hypertension, for instance, was roughly equivalent to that of a person 7.2 years older whose systolic blood pressure reading was in the normal range.
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- danjaouen 14y agoReading this article has significantly raised my blood pressure.
- cypher517 14y agoI wonder how factors associated with high blood pressure, such as diet and exercise, also contribute to the damages on the brain.
- hluska 14y agoGreat question! As far as diet and exercise go, researchers from UCLA conducted an experiment. They found that (in mice) a high fat diet reduces the level of brain derived neurotrophic factors. These levels are a predictor of how well you will learn. However, exercise can counteract these effects. Dehydration causes a range of neurological problems. Essentially, if you don't have enough water to cleanse your system, your body starts using amino acids. These amino acids would normally be used up building neurotransmitters, so, this can cause all sorts of problems, from what resembles ADHD, to depression, or even conditions that look like autoimmune disorders.
- omnisci 14y agoIt is pretty well established that exercise can have a huge effect on brain function, specifically through increasing blood flow. Diet will as well, although the mechanisms by which this happens are probably not as well understood. Actually, now that I think about it, there are a bunch of articles on this. I'm not familiar with the field as much, but I can point you to a free review paper that goes over the topic. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22141190 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22141190
- hluska 14y agoThis article terrifies me.... About four years ago (when I had just turned 31), I started working at a local startup. It was the typical startup gig with huge hours and even bigger responsibility. Being somewhat dysfunctional, I began living the worst possible life. I was working huge hours, so I decided that it didn't make sense to cook. Consequently, I started eating out at least two meals a day. And, since I was working too many hours to cook, I couldn't justify going to the gym. Heck, why work out if you don't have enough time to cook??? Within a year, my body decided to rebel. I started getting weird symptoms - my chest often felt hollow, I'd get weird pains across the tops of my shoulders and through my neck, and occasionally, I would have to stop while walking up a flight of stairs. It wasn't because I was out of breathe, rather, it was because my head would start to spin and I was afraid that I'd fall. Being stubborn, I put off going to the doctor. But, eventually, I started having bigger symptoms and I had to go. My blood pressure was extremely high. So high that my doctor took two readings, then took me into another office to try a different machine. I'll never forget that conversation: - "Greg, your blood pressure is very high." - "How high?" - "High enough that if you keep doing what you're doing, you will have a stroke." Hearing the word 'stroke' when you are 32 years old is a pretty big shock to the system. So, I made some changes. I went back to the gym. I started cooking. I cut my salt intake drastically. Things settled down... But, as they often do, stress started creeping back into my life and my habits started to slip. My attendance at the gym started to drop off. My eating habits started to slip. Things culminated one horrifying morning, when I was sitting at my desk at work and things went....well, uh...things went. Half of my body went totally numb. I looked at my computer and, even though I knew it was a computer, I could not, for the life of me, remember what the heck it was called. There I was...33 years old and I saw a computer in front of me. I knew what it was for. I knew what I could do with it. But I could not, for the life of me, remember that it was called a computer. I'll never forget the sheer terror of that moment. My company's Biz Dev guy rushed me to the hospital, where I got to experience a full battery of tests. Thankfully, it wasn't a stroke, but it was freakishly close. I am a touch claustrophobic so they were afraid that a CT scan would elevate my blood pressure, so they drugged me. The combination of extreme fear and a heavy dose of Ativan was unlike anything I have ever experienced. When I'm afraid of things, I like to intellectualize. I like neuroscience a whole lot, so, until the Ativan kicked in, I was rapidly going through my symptoms and trying to localize them to a region of my brain. Once the Ativan kicked in, I knew that I should likely do, uh, something, but uh, yeah, oh wow, this is, uh, pretty relaxing and..... Long story short, I did not have a stroke. Rather, my blood pressure went through the roof and my body decided to flip the reset button. I took blood pressure medication for awhile and, with my doctor's help, eventually got off of it. Now, I live differently, but I still see my inner demon trying to make me sick again. The old habits - working too much, exercising too little, and eating out a little too often - still rear their head. But, this time, I know that if I don't take care of myself, I might end up in the hospital again. Sorry for writing so much, but I wanted to share my story. We are involved in a very stressful industry and, though I don't know many of you, I care about all of you. Please be healthy.
- frankus 14y agoIt would be interesting news if intervening with blood-pressure-lowering drugs led to a reduction in brain aging against a control group. For now it's just an interesting correlation, and it's kind of disappointing to see the Heart Association making recommendations based on it, particularly since the evidence for the benefits of reducing salt intake is so weak.
- ExpiredLink 14y ago118:78 right now.
- revelation 14y agoMy body likes to shoot up my blood pressure far off the charts whenever someone tries to measure it. Of course, the pattern only grows stronger from these experiences.
- jrockway 14y agoTrue of everyone, it's called white coat hypertension: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_coat_hypertension http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_coat_hypertension After my doctor noticed high-ish blood pressure, I bought a meter and started measuring at home. Always below 120/80, sometimes below 110/75. I brought the same meter to the doctor's office and measured 135/85. Strange, isn't it?
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- michael_michael 14y agoNot true of _everyone_, but definitely true of some (including me). Additionally, white coat hypertension is not entirely benign. From the wikipedia article you link: "In general, individuals with white coat hypertension have lower morbidity than patients with sustained hypertension, but higher morbidity than the clinically normotensive."
- jrockway 14y agoIn general, individuals with white coat hypertension have lower morbidity than patients with sustained hypertension, but higher morbidity than the clinically normotensive. There goes my plan to live forever. Foiled again!
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- tptacek 14y agoSame, but my doctor just samples it a couple times during the visit and it eventually leaves crazytown.
- omnisci 14y agoHere is a link to the actual article, sans media bs. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474442212702417 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474442212... Ps. lots of things can damage your brain long before you are old. Don't go flipping out because of this one article. If you are interested in learning more about disease, etc, go to www.pubmed.com and search for info there. There you will find links to actual studies (not from the media) and you can inform yourself. If you are interested in a particular topic, look for review papers. NIH has mandated that these must be available to the public (free) for at least 1 year after publication. Although this one article is not as bad as others, I can't stand when the media talks about scientific experiments. "This just in, study shows that normal drinking water will murder your whole family!!!!......[small font] if you are a bacteria in Antarctica and it's Tuesday night following a purple moon. [fontsize]
- pud 14y agoThere's an awkwardly worded survey question at the top of that article: "Do you know if your blood pressure is in the normal range?" It could mean "Do you have normal blood pressure?" or "Do you know your blood pressure?" I think grammatically it means the latter, but my guess is most people are reading it as the former. I'm not sure which one the author intended.
- srlake 14y ago+1 for exercise and healthy eating. One of the many reasons we pay for our employees gym memberships. If you really want to get in shape and turn your health around, find your local Crossfit (www.crossfit.com) gym and get hooked.
- rhokstar 14y agoDefinitely. 6 days a week, 2 hours a day.
- ihsw 14y agoThat may be extreme for most people, however ten minutes of calisthenics everyday and eating right can bring people two-thirds of the way there.
- srlake 14y agoYup. Exactly. 12 hours+ a week seems like a lot when working on your startup, until you realize the benefit of feeling better all the time, relieving stress, and not having high blood pressure when you're 30.
- tomjen3 14y agoOkay. If that is what it takes, count me out. That is an insane amount of time to spend doing something that we as a species have worked so hard to overcome the need for.
- srlake 14y agoThis comment is the problem with North America's health today.
- bromang 14y ago...or just get a normal gym membership, save yourself money and not get injured by bizarre exercise selection.
- rhokstar 14y agohttp://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/the-best-gym-for-startups-crossfit/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/the-best-gym-for-startups-c...
- tptacek 14y agoI would like a credible dismissive comment to be at the top of this thread now please, because otherwise this is very bad news.
- a_bonobo 14y agoBest medical journal (Lancet), proper sample-size (579), from first glance it looks OK! From their discussion there are some caveats: - mostly white people checked (so if you're Asian, this might not happen) - MRI has a known bias towards participation of healthy people, as unhealthy people don't like to hear the "news" about their condition - the study is "cross-sectional", i.e., the MRI is just from one point in time. Having several measurements from the same people over a period of time (in years) would be much, much better. Here's the original paper in case anyone's got access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474442212702417 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147444221... P.S.: To lift your mood, the first comment in the news-article is hilarious: "now the government obama care will start to penalize people with high blood pressure? absurd, they just need more cash."
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- carbocation 14y agoGreat comment. Only tweak is that it's Lancet Neurology. Cool that it's done in the Framingham study.
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- tocomment 14y agoHas anyone tried garlic to help with blood pressure? It seems there's good evidence for it.
- Lost_BiomedE 14y agoAged garlic took mine down. I don't have hypertension so I got off of it; my BP returned to my normal. The studies are actually kind of hit and miss, but it worked for me as a normie. Another one to look at is pomegranate. A friend of mine was having side effects with his BP medicine, and I made the suggestion to try it, LEF brand pills or POM juice. He was able to get off, had same BP as when on meds, without side effects. There are lots of studies to look at on this on at pubmed, essentially a beta-blocker with some other actions. Lastly, most people are deficient in potassium. Get some potassium glutamate powder to supplement (not pills as they are regulated to be under 100mg). RDA is 5g, and most people are under 2g a day intake. I have taken 500mg worth of potassium, daily in water, for years without issue.
- tocomment 14y agoIs there a certain product you buy for the garlic? What dosage?
- Lost_BiomedE 14y agoIt was Kyolic 100. I was taking one a day but the bottle says 2.
- tocomment 14y agoHmm, I was reading that the aging process makes it lose the active ingredient? But it still seemed to work really well for you?
- Lost_BiomedE 14y agoIt loses some actives and gains as well as intensifies others. The studies are not consistent for its ability for dropping BP. For whatever reason, I see a drop when using it and a rise to normal when not (did this twice before isolating it as the cause, for me). If I was looking for supplements for BP, based on research, I would go with pomegranate or potassium.
- jacques_chester 14y agoHey guys, before we post the same link to "The Best Gym for Startups: Crossfit" two dozen times, let's reflect that Crossfit has a number of issues -- completely absent quality control being chief, with poor exercise selection logic being a close second. Let me put it this way: injuries per kilowatt-hour. Kettlebell swings, prowler pushes, etc -- good! High rep Oly lifting, high rep box jumps, kipping pullups -- terrible! Crossfit does not distinguish between these exercise selection options.
- srlake 14y agoYou clearly haven't tried crossfit for very long, or went to a shitty box.
- jacques_chester 14y agoLike I said: there is no quality control.
- srlake 14y agoThere is no quality control at regular, commercial gyms either. I used to work out at a popular commercial gym and would see trainers doing the most ridiculous things with their clients: swimmers press on a bosu ball for a average 45 year old non-athlete, all kinds of pointless machine circuits. Coming from a competitive sports background and year of training, my injury rate has actually gone down after joining crossfit, mostly due to the balance it builds by the variety of movements.
- jacques_chester 14y ago> I used to work out at a popular commercial gym and would see trainers doing the most ridiculous things with their clients: swimmers press on a bosu ball for a average 45 year old non-athlete, all kinds of pointless machine circuits. Which brings us neatly to my second point, which was injuries/Kwh. Most commercial gyms don't perform exercise selection; it's done by trainers who generally focus on stuff that seems difficult and exotic because that's what brings in the business. The gyms themselves select insurance-friendly machinery. While Crossfit gets people up off their backsides to do actual work, there's a lot of flat out stupidity mixed in with the legit stuff. High rep Oly movements? Dumb. High rep box jumps? Dumb. Kipping pullups? Let's not go into that here. Mix in the fact that a bosu ball pushup, while stupid, is less likely to cause a bulged disc than say deadlifting 65% of your DL 1RM for max reps; and suddenly we again find the quality control thing swinging back into central view.
- wiggins37 14y agoI hope that somebody reads this and sits down in the automatic BP machine at the drug store. Current recommendations are for everyone to have their BP checked every two years even if they have never had hypertension. Besides neurological damage you could be saving yourself a lot of grief with heart disease and kidney disease in the long term if you get your blood pressure under control early. Especially if your parents have or had high blood pressure, please get your's checked.
- niels_olson 14y agoyou know, here's a weird question: is there a market for a start-up-centric physician? I'm seeing a focus on depression and nutrition. Thoughts? How would one measure the cost-benefit? Let's say I want a house in the valley? How does one work backward from there? Has anyone visited a doctor literally lived above his clinic? The primary care side of HN actually fascinates me a little. But, wow, that would be a big, scary jump.
- marze 14y agoIt would be more accurate to say: High blood pressure may damage the brain, or, the factors that cause high blood pressure also damage the brain. Correlation does not imply causation.
- kayoone 14y agoI am 29 and suffered from high blood pressure. I am not particulary overweight but not super lean either. For the past 3 years i have worked at a startup that i founded as a CEO and programmer. Ultimately we failed but it still was a superb experience but the long hours and high stress also had alot of negative impacts on my life. I got high blood pressure without noticing it, i gained about 10kg in weight, lost a long term (8 years) relationship and always felt stressed and guilty of not doing enough. In the end the product didnt find success and i realized that even if i love my work and love to work hard, i dont want to sacrifice my health and life as a yound adult. Now i go to the gym 4-5 times a week and try to maintain some balance while still working hard and most importantly more efficient. Even in 8 hours of highly focused work you will get alot more done than in grinding it out for 12 hours each day, and with regular exercise you will feel much better and be healthier! I love working out, not only is my blood pressure in excellent condition again and i feel fitter than ever, but it also gives me something else than my coding work to excel at, which is very important to me. This is just my experience and YMMV, but i learned it the hard way. Think of your health and happiness first!
- givan 14y agoWhat do you think of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_trainer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_trainer to stay fit and avoid this thing of problems? I don't like losing time going to the gym and this machine seems to train a large number of muscle groups and could be a good gym substitute to maintain health.
- Lost_BiomedE 14y agoIf only one machine were to be picked, I would go rower.