Can High Blood Pressure Cause Dementia?

NIH study to look at hypertension-dementia link.
The AP (1/26, Neergaard) reports that "a flurry of new research" suggests that "controlling blood pressure just might be the best protection yet known against dementia." In fact, "the evidence is strong enough that the National Institutes of Health soon will begin enrolling thousands of hypertension sufferers in a major study to see if aggressive treatment...better protects not just their hearts but their brains." Participants in NIH's SPRINT study "will be screened for dementia, and a subset will undergo repeated cognitive testing and MRI scans to tell if lowering blood pressure also protects against a slide toward dementia."