High blood pressure in midlife tied to later dementia

Women who were hypertensive at an average age of 44 had a 68% higher risk for dementia than those who had normal blood pressure at that age

Women with high blood pressure in their 40s are at increased risk for dementia in later years, researchers report. But the finding does not hold for men.

Beginning in 1964, investigators collected health and lifestyle information on 5,646 men and women when they were 30 to 35 years old, and again when they were in their 40s. From 1996 to 2015, 532 of them were found to have Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. The study is in Neurology.

Hypertension in women in their 30s was not associated with dementia. But women who were hypertensive at an average age of 44 had