Nearly half of all adults in the US have high blood pressure. That’s approximately 116 million Americans who are also considered higher risk for top diseases including heart attacks and strokes. This is why doctors are so interested in aggressively lowering blood pressure with drugs. But recent evidence suggests lowering blood pressure may NOT be best for everyone. In fact, higher blood pressure, particularly after age 60, may be protective for some conditions including dementia.
What is a Blood Pressure Reading?
With every pump of your heart, blood is propelled into your stretchy arteries. The force inside these arteries rises to a peak pressure which we call “systolic.” Between pumps, while the heart relaxes to fill for the next one, the force inside arteries drops to the lowest pressure called “diastolic.” Blood pressure readings are recorded as bigger systolic number over the smaller diastolic in units of millimeters of Mercury (example: 120/80 mmHg).
Measuring Blood Pressure is Easy
Consumer devices equipped with a cuff that inflates around your arm can measure blood pressure in seconds. As the cuff slowly deflates, very specific vibration sounds are detected from blood flowing into your arm. When first detected the cuff pressure is recorded as your systolic blood pressure. The cuff continues to deflate, and the diastolic blood pressure is recorded at the point when the sounds stop.
Blood Pressure Increases as We Age
Because blood vessels normally become stiffer and less elastic as we age, systolic blood pressure naturally rises. We can expect a normal increase of about 7mmHG for every 10 years we live. By age 70, 3 out of 4 of us of will have high blood pressure if we follow current doctors’ population guidelines.
How High is Too High for Pressure?
We know people with long standing higher blood pressures are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes. Lowering the blood pressure in some individuals will certainly lower their risk of having these events, but the picture gets a bit hazy as we get older, especially if we have few or no heart risk factors. Several studies have shown we might be better off allowing the blood pressure to rise naturally as we age.
Dementia Risk Increases with Lower Blood Pressure
A recent study showed we are less likely to have memory loss if we keep our blood pressures higher. Exactly how high seems to be dependent on age, but as early as age 60, systolic blood pressure above the current guidelines of 150mmHG seems to have protective qualities. Conversely, one other study showed a decline in blood pressure can predict the onset of dementia. A steady and slow increase in blood pressure as we age seems to be important for protecting brain function and preserving memory.
Trends in Vitals can be Predictors of Health
It’s clear that blood pressure readings are important in many diseases including dementia, heart attacks, and strokes. Measuring vital signs at visits helps doctors evaluate symptoms and diagnose disease. But low frequency measurement a few times a year like this can seldom catch early and subtle changes that precede or predict disease. For true prevention, we need to monitor at least daily readings for trends.
We are just beginning to understand how trending changes in Blood Pressure and other vital signs over weeks, months, and years can predict health risk. Home and Thriving, Inc is leading the way with the very first application that
1) makes sense of daily health data collected through your watch and phone,
2) delivers daily health insights to you, and
3) provides timely alerts to your loved ones, and doctors.