In the long-term, a portion of people who commonly experience dizziness when standing up may be at an increased risk of dementia, new research shows. The results appeared in the journal Neurology.
According to researchers with the American Academy of Neurology, their study aimed at identifying if orthostatic hypotension and blood pressure postural changes were linked to the development of dementia in the long-term.
To find out if there was any association, researchers studied more than 2,000 participants in late-adulthood as part of the Health, Aging, Body Composition cohort study.
Orthostatic blood pressure was measured for a span of five years, while blood pressure postural changes variability was assessed overtime “using several indicators including standard deviation and coefficient of variation,” the co-authors explained in their report.
Among the participants, the most prevalent age was 73, and all did not exhibit dementia during their enrollment. Of the more than 2,000 participants, 462 went on to develop dementia by the study’s conclusion.
In their study, researchers found that the participants with systolic orthostatic hypotension were close to 40 percent more likely to develop dementia. The findings suggest that controlling blood pressure drops may help inhibit the severity of cognitive decline over time.
“Systolic OHYPO and visit-to-visit seated systolic BP postural changes variability were associated with greater dementia risk,” the co-authors concluded in their findings.
“Our findings raise the question of potential preventive interventions to control orthostatic SBP and its fluctuations.”
