Pressure to Perform

Next time you get your blood pressure checked, don't think of it as simply a measure of cardiovascular fitness. It also predicts how well your brain will be carrying out its duties 25 years from now.

A new study shows that middle-aged men with high blood pressure are likely to suffer from impaired memory, judgment, and concentration once they reach their late 70s.

Tracking the' health of several thousand elderly Hawaiian men, researchers found that the men's current blood pressure was largely irrelevant to their present brain fitness. But a look at 25-year-old medical records revealed that men whose blood pressure was elevated in the 1960s are now more prone to mental decay.

Every 10-point increase in systolic blood pressure—that's the "120" portion of a "120 over 80" reading—increased their risk of x poor brain function by nine percent, Lenore Launer, Ph.D., and colleagues report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 274, No. 23). Mid-life hypertension also increased their odds of having merely average (as opposed to superior) brain performance during their golden years.

"We know that high blood pressure is related to stroke and heart disease," notes Launer, a neuroepidemiologist at the National Institute for Public Health in the Netherlands. "This is just another reason to reduce it."

So regular exercise and eating right–remember those vows you made and promptly broke back in January?—may be as good for your brain as for your heart.

ILLUSTRATION