High blood pressure may contribute to cognitive decline
nih.gov
nih.gov
This is what happens in malnutrition. Absence of nutrients and coenzymes (vitamins) leads to energy deficit and results in cellular damage, nervous system tries to compensate that by increasing blood flow, so it induces high blood pressure to have better chances of survival with increased blood perfusion and substrates delivery rate (glucose, lipids, oxygen, coenzymes). Immune system gets activated by metabolically impaired tissues creating even more damages at the affected areas.
Changing electrolyte balance of the body by giving extremely high amounts of salt is a sure way to disrupt the metabolism with all the consequences.
Isn't that the same?
If you read it this way, they are the same.
> "High blood pressure may be not [be] a cause of cognitive decline, but [cognitive decline may] just [be] a consequence [of high blood pressure]."
The other interpretation makes less sense.
> "High blood pressure may be not a cause of cognitive decline, but just a consequence [of cognitive decline]."
The implication here is that cognitive decline causes high blood pressure, which doesn't make any sense.
The author I think was trying to say they have a common cause, but I don't believe there's any evidence for the mechanism on which their thesis relies.
You're right that it can be read both ways.
Other causes of hypertension are very well known
Further, it could be a third factor causes both, but also that high blood pressure independently worsens the issue. The body keeps blood pressure in a certain range for a reason.
All these years they've been telling us some BS about eating salt and such. No one knows anything about how exactly human body works and all the parts that interconnected to each other. Even today we have specialists that treat a specific condition, a cardiologist doesn't look at GI issues. If you are going to a hospital to "treat" your chronic condition then you've already lost the battle. Once they've ruled out very obvious things like infection and such, you are pretty much on your own.
High salt levels increase Aldosterone (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327640/)
> However, blocking the brain blood vessels’ ability to respond to IL-17 only partially rescued cognitive impairment, suggesting that there was another source of IL-17 acting on the brain.
Just a guess, but
To produce Aldosterone the body also over produces cortisol resulting in less somatostatin, lowering IGF-1. IGF-1 stimulates the growth and division of both oligodendrocytes and schwann cells so lower IGF-1 would decrease myelin growth and induce cognitive impairment.
An interesting note is that of runaway hypertension when the kidneys become damaged by hypertension, decrease their ability to modulate blood pressure, thereby increasing hypertension, which damage the kidneys, which... so on.
Guanfacine helps significantly.
I'm also on BP medication, and if I miss a couple of doses and my BP rises, it becomes impossible to think clearly. So the link to cognitive decline seems unsurprising to me.
Could you describe that more? As in the sensation?
I routinely get blood pressure spikes in the late afternoons. It's hard to describe but when it happens I feel like I need my vision to "zoom out", it's almost overwhelming / fatiguing to maintain what I'm looking at. I feel "spaced out" cognitively when this happens.
Lack of oxygen immediately contributes to cognitive decline.