Health
High blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease could go hand in hand, study finds
The risk of Alzheimer’s disease could escalate along with high blood pressure, according to a new study.
Published in the medical journal Neurology, the research found that people age 60 and older who have untreated high blood pressure may be more likely to develop the common dementia type.
Although the results don’t prove that untreated high blood pressure causes the disease, they do show an association, the American Academy of Neurology stated in a press release.
ALZHEIMER’S AND PARKINSON’S RISK IS HIGHER FOR PEOPLE WITH BODY FAT IN TWO SPECIFIC AREAS
Study author Matthew J. Lennon, M.D., PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Australia, wrote in a statement that high blood pressure is a “leading cause of stroke and cerebrovascular disease, and yet it can be controlled with medication, reducing a person’s risk of these diseases.”
The study found that people age 60 and older with untreated high blood pressure may have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. (iStock)
While previous research has found that taking blood pressure medications can reduce dementia risk, according to Lennon, less is known about the condition’s impact on Alzheimer’s risk.
“Our meta-analysis looked at older people and found that not treating blood pressure may indeed increase a person’s risk,” he said.
BOOST BRAIN HEALTH AND SLOW MENTAL AGING WITH 10 INTRIGUING TIPS FROM LONGEVITY EXPERTS
The researchers analyzed 31,250 people averaging 72 years old who were involved in studies measuring cognitive change and dementia diagnosis over time, the release stated.
After four years, 1,415 of those individuals developed Alzheimer’s disease.
A doctor points at potential evidence of Alzheimer’s disease spotted in a PET scan at Brigham And Women’s Hospital in Boston on March 30, 2023. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File photo)
People with untreated high blood pressure had a 36% increased risk of Alzheimer’s compared to those without the condition, the study found.
They had a 42% increased risk in comparison to those with high blood pressure who were taking blood pressure medication.
“This relationship is not altered by increasing age, which indicates that even those in their 70s and 80s are at significantly lower risk of AD if hypertension is treated,” Lennon told Fox News Digital in an email.
NEW BLOOD PRESSURE PROCEDURE IS ‘GAME-CHANGING’ FOR PEOPLE WITH UNCONTROLLED HYPERTENSION, SAY DOCTORS
“These results suggest that treating high blood pressure as a person ages continues to be a crucial factor in reducing their risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.
The researchers also found that there were no significant risk differences in the effects of blood pressure or medication use across different sexes or racial groups.
“This is a very promising result, as it suggests that optimal care for one group will be similar for others,” Lennon noted.
“Treating high blood pressure as a person ages continues to be a crucial factor in reducing their risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and Fox News senior medical analyst, reacted to these findings in a conversation with Fox News Digital.
Alzheimer’s involves “neuroinflammation and the formation of plaques, which interfere with neuronal communication,” noted Siegel, who was not involved in the study.
“We have long known that high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high glucose levels — as well as obesity, smoking and alcohol use — contribute to increased risk of heart attack, stroke and vascular dementia,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Added the doctor, “High blood pressure may accelerate this development by interfering with oxygen and blood supply to the nerve cells of the brain in some areas — especially the frontal lobe, which is affected.
Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk, geriatric medicine physician and author in California, was not involved in the study but said she was not surprised by the findings.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“We have long known that high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high glucose levels — as well as obesity, smoking and alcohol use — contribute to increased risk of heart attack, stroke and vascular dementia,” she told Fox News Digital.
“This new study also finds a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid proteins deposing the brain) among those treated for hypertension.”
Potential study limitations
The researchers used data from 14 different longitudinal studies from around the world, Lennon noted, which means there may be some variability in the way they define dementia and high blood pressure.
“Most of the studies also did not report mortality data, and thus our analysis did not account for the competing risks of dementia and death,” the researcher told Fox News Digital.
“These results suggest that treating high blood pressure as a person ages continues to be a crucial factor in reducing their risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” a study researcher said. (iStock)
Factors like socioeconomic status, health literacy, access to medications, poorly managed medical conditions, and depression and other mental illnesses could also confound the association between hypertension status and dementia risk, Lennon added.
“Because the study is taken over a long period of time, any number of outside variables can alter the results, making it less reliable,” Landsverk noted.
Hypertension is extremely common, affecting two-thirds of those over age 65 and around 1.3 billion people worldwide, Lennon noted.
“In the vast majority of cases, it is clinically silent, causing no symptoms until you present with a heart attack, a stroke, or — as we now have shown — dementia,” Lennon said.
Hypertension is extremely common, affecting two-thirds of those over the age of 65 and around 1.3 billion people worldwide. (iStock)
Only 28% of those with high blood pressure have it under adequate control, he noted.
“While you might not feel the consequences of high blood pressure immediately, it is really important that you keep a close eye on it and bring it under control if you want to maximize your chance at a longer, happier, healthier life,” Lennon added.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews/health
For those who are obese, Landsverk added, losing weight is the fastest way to decrease risk factors.
“In general, the healthiest approach is adopting a plant-based diet and exercising 30 minutes each day to reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, dementia and now Alzheimer’s disease by as much as 40%,” she advised.
Leonard Hayflick, a biomedical researcher who discovered that normal cells can divide only a certain number of times — setting a limit on the human life span and frustrating would-be-immortalists everywhere — died on Aug. 1 at his home in Sea Ranch, Calif. He was 98.
His son, Joel Hayflick, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.
Like many great scientific findings, Dr. Hayflick’s came somewhat by accident. As a young scientist in the early 1960s at the Wistar Institute, a research organization at the University of Pennsylvania, he was trying to develop healthy embryonic cell lines in order to study whether viruses can cause certain types of cancer.
He and a colleague, Paul Moorhead, soon noticed that somatic — that is, nonreproductive — cells went through a phase of division, splitting between 40 and 60 times, before lapsing into what he called senescence.
As senescent cells accumulate, he posited, the body itself begins to age and decline. The only cells that do not go into senescence, he added, are cancer cells.
As a result of this cellular clock, he said, no amount of diet or exercise or genetic tweaking will push the human species past a life span of about 125 years.
This finding, which the Nobel-winning virologist Macfarlane Burnet later called the Hayflick limit, ran counter to everything scientists believed about cells and aging — especially the thesis that cells themselves are immortal, and that aging is a result of external causes, like disease, diet and solar radiation.
Other researchers later discovered the mechanisms behind the Hayflick limit: As cells divide, they create copies of DNA strands, but the ends of each copy, called the telomeres, are a bit shorter than the last. Eventually the telomere runs out, and the cell stops dividing.
Dr. Hayflick made other important contributions to science. He developed a particularly vibrant cell line, WI-38, which has been used for decades to make vaccines. He also discovered that so-called walking pneumonia, unlike regular pneumonia, is caused not by a virus but by a type of mycoplasma, the smallest form of free-living organism.
But it was his work on aging that established his legacy. Dr. Hayflick was an outspoken critic of those who thought they could unlock the science of eternal life; he considered that idea an illusion and the pursuit of it a folly, if not outright fraud.
“The invention of ways to increase human longevity is the world’s second-oldest profession, or maybe even the first,” he told the medical journal The Lancet in 2011. “Individuals are going to the bank at this moment with enormous sums of money gained by persuading people that they’ve found either a way to extend your life or to make you immortal.”
Leonard Hayflick was born on May 20, 1928, in Philadelphia to Nathan Hayflick, who made dental prosthetics, and Edna (Silver) Hayflick, who worked in his father’s office.
He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania but took three years off to serve in the Army. He graduated with a degree in microbiology in 1951, and five years later received a Ph.D. in chemistry and microbiology there.
After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, he returned to Penn and the Wistar Institute, where he made many of his most important discoveries. He continued that work at Stanford University in 1968.
There was a wrinkle, though. The National Institutes of Health had funded the research on his WI-38 cell line but declined to fund its distribution, even as other researchers clamored for samples. Dr. Hayflick established a company to process orders, charged a minimal fee for shipping and set the proceeds aside until ownership was clarified.
But in a private report that was released to the news media, the N.I.H. accused Dr. Hayflick of theft. He sued the institute, charging invasion of privacy and reputational damage, including a forced resignation from his position at Stanford. The litigation took six years and ended in a settlement that allowed him to keep some of the money and cell samples.
During those six years, Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which allows scientists to profit off government-funded research. The law, which would have made Dr. Hayflick’s earlier actions unquestionably legal, helped catalyze the biotech industry.
Dr. Hayflick married Ruth Heckler in 1955. She died in 2016. Along with his son, he is survived by four daughters, Deborah Curle, Susan Hayflick, Rachel Hastings and Annie Hayflick; eight grandchildren; and his sister, Elaine Rosamoff.
Dr. Hayflick later worked at the University of Florida and, since 1988, at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was an emeritus professor.
His criticism of those trying to find ways to extend the human life span was not just about practicality. On principle he thought it was a terrible idea.
“I’m an optimist,” he told The Guardian in 2001. “Anyone who believes in manipulating the human aging process is a terrible pessimist. I don’t want to be alive when that’s possible. I don’t want to give another Adolf Hitler, a Saddam Hussein, another 50 years of life.”
He continued, “Every time someone like that dies a natural death, people should thank their God, whoever that might be, for the phenomenon of aging.”
Having an IUD (intrauterine device) inserted for birth control is known to be potentially painful.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now recommending pain management protocols for the procedure.
Women on social media have documented their discomfort, with some TikTok users posting videos of themselves in visible pain while lying on a doctor’s table.
JD VANCE PROMOTES FAMILY IN AMERICA AMID BIRTH RATE DROP, FUELED BY SEVERAL FACTORS
One user, Sarah Warren, shared that she took ibuprofen an hour before her appointment as suggested by her doctor, but that the procedure was still painful.
“I almost passed out, not going to lie,” she said. “There needs to be better pain management for IUD insertion.”
“There needs to be better pain management for IUD insertion,” wrote one woman (not pictured) on social media. (iStock)
In a 2014 study published in the journal Contraception, health care providers were found to underestimate patients’ pain during IUD insertion.
On a 100-mm pain scale, patients in the study ranked their maximum pain at 64.8 mm, while providers rated it at 35.3 mm.
New guidance for pain relief
Following a persistent call for change from patients and doctors, the CDC released new guidance in its U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, 2024.
SOME TAMPON PRODUCTS FOUND TO CONTAIN TOXIC METALS IN FIRST-TIME STUDY
The agency suggested that all patients should be counseled on the potential pain before the appointment, as well as on the risks, benefits and alternative options for pain management.
“When considering patient pain, it is important to recognize that the experience of pain is individualized and might be influenced by previous experiences, including trauma and mental health conditions, such as depression or anxiety,” the guidance reads.
The IUD is inserted through the opening of the cervix and into the uterus. (iStock)
Evidence suggests that using lidocaine as a local anesthetic — or using a topical gel, cream or spray — could help reduce patient pain, according to the agency.
The notice also listed misoprostol as a medication used by some providers to help soften the cervix before IUD insertion.
The CDC also mentioned a variety of alternative options, like NSAIDs, smooth muscle relaxants and analgesics, although the evidence for pain reduction is limited.
ENDOMETRIAL CANCER PATIENTS SEE NEW HOPE AS FDA APPROVES ‘TRANSFORMING’ IMMUNOTHERAPY DRUG
Dr. Meleen Chuang, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn, reflected on this guidance in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.
“Many OB/GYNs have already been doing these interventions for years,” she said. “It is welcoming to see the CDC reflect the updates for guidance in accordance to our care delivery.”
“It is welcoming to see the CDC reflect the updates for guidance in accordance to our care delivery,” said one OB/GYN (not pictured). (iStock)
Using pain relief methods like lidocaine to numb the cervix or taking medications such as acetaminophen and NSAIDs can help with reducing this discomfort, according to Chuang.
Other non-invasive pain relief methods can include using a heating pad on the patient’s belly, the doctor said.
In addition to pain management, Chuang said her patients often find comfort in being “talked through” the procedure by their doctors.
Taking medications like acetaminophen and other NSAIDs can help with reducing IUD insertion discomfort, according to an OB/GYN. (iStock)
“The communication of what to expect before and during the procedure helps with the overall experience and alleviates any anxieties,” she said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“These are very easy things we commonly do for patients, as well as being fast/efficient in placing the IUDS, [to] make the experience much more acceptable.”
“The procedure for placement for IUD should take no more than two to three minutes in experienced hands,” an OB/GYN said. (iStock)
“We want what is best for our patients, and if there is fear or concern [about] pain … we are obligated to help our patients feel supported and at ease,” Chuang added.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews/health
IUDs are more than 99% effective in preventing pregnancy, according to Yale Medicine.
In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, a CDC spokesperson said, “Health care providers can use this guidance to support person-centered contraceptive counseling and remove unnecessary medical barriers to accessing and using contraception.”
Health
'Gender-affirming' breast removal surgeries may have been performed on hundreds of young girls since 2017
Since 2017, hundreds of females age 12 and younger with gender dysmorphia have undergone double mastectomies, according to analysis released by the Manhattan Institute this week.
The breast removal surgery, sometimes called “top surgery,” aims to create a “more masculine-looking chest,” as stated on Cleveland Clinic’s website.
Leor Sapir, PhD, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute whose areas of research include pediatric gender medicine, shared that anywhere from 5,288 to 6,294 double mastectomies were performed on girls under age 18 between 2017 and 2023 — and that 50 to 179 of those girls were just 12 years old or younger.
‘GENDER-AFFIRMING’ TREATMENTS DON’T BENEFIT YOUTH, SAYS PEDIATRICIANS GROUP: ‘IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES’
This was based on analysis of an “all-payer national insurance database,” including patients who were previously diagnosed with gender dysphoria and had the treatment covered by insurance, Sapir wrote in an article revealing the findings.
The actual numbers could be higher, the Manhattan Institute claims, because researchers did not include patients who paid for the procedure themselves without submitting an insurance claim.
“The out-of-pocket costs of ‘top surgery’ can be as low as $3,000, a sum many middle-class families can afford,” Sapir wrote.
If any procedures were entered under different codes for billing, those would also not show up.
TRANS CHILDREN WHO TOOK PUBERTY-BLOCKING DRUGS HAD MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, UK STUDY FOUND
Prior research has suggested different numbers.
An October 2022 study led by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine — published in JAMA Network — found that there were only 489 top surgeries performed on adolescents in 2019.
Since 2017, hundreds of females 12 and younger with gender dysmorphia have undergone double mastectomies, according to data analysis. (iStock)
In August 2023, however, researchers from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Southern California found that 3,678 minors received “gender-affirming surgery.”
That study was also published in JAMA.
Those studies both used different and more limited data sources than Manhattan Institute’s study, the company told Fox News Digital.
PUBERTY BLOCKERS COULD CAUSE LONG-TERM FERTILITY AND HEALTH ISSUES FOR BOYS, STUDY FINDS: ‘MAY BE PERMANENT’
In June, the Biden administration spoke out against gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors for the first time, as reported by The 19th.
“These are deeply personal decisions and we believe these surgeries should be limited to adults,” a White House spokesperson said in an email, according to the outlet.
“We continue to support gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families and doctors in these decisions.”
‘Of deep concern’
Psychologists have spoken out about the mental health consequences of these types of procedures — including Dr. Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan-based psychotherapist and author.
“Taking a scalpel to a psychological disorder is of deep concern to me, especially when it comes to minors,” he told Fox News Digital.
Psychologists have spoken out about the mental health consequences of certain types of surgeries. (iStock)
Alpert said he takes issue with the phrase “affirming care and treatment.”
“What does it really mean to affirm?” he asked. “In many cases, I have seen people suffer significantly because they have sought treatment from therapists who do just that — affirm.”
“Taking a scalpel to a psychological disorder is of deep concern to me, especially when it comes to minors.”
“They nod their heads, agree with everything their patient says, and validate all their thoughts, feelings and behaviors — even if it’s clearly unhealthy.”
While it’s normal for kids and teens to question their evolving feelings about gender identity, Alpert said, “they are being rushed into gender-affirming treatment and surgeries, rather than having their thoughts explored and challenged.”
While it’s normal for kids and teens to question their evolving feelings about gender identity, “they are being rushed into gender-affirming treatment and surgeries, rather than having their thoughts explored and challenged,” a psychotherapist said. (iStock)
“This unhealthy trend can unwittingly trap therapy patients in a cycle where the patient relies heavily on the therapist to feel good and continue to get validation, and the therapist relies on the patient to maintain their business.”
Developmental concerns must be considered, the doctor emphasized, as minors are still undergoing physical and emotional changes.
GENDER DYSPHORIA AND EATING DISORDERS HAVE SKYROCKETED SINCE PANDEMIC, REPORT REVEALS: ‘RIPPLE EFFECTS’
“Surgery is not appropriate for a child’s ever-changing sense of identity,” Alpert said, warning of long-term psychological consequences.
“Depression, anxiety and substance abuse are chief among these concerns,” he added.
“‘Wait and see’ might be preferred over taking action, as regret could very well be a consequence of surgical intervention, especially if gender identity evolves,” a doctor said. (iStock)
It’s also important to ensure that the minors and their parents fully understand the implications of such a “drastic intervention,” according to Alpert.
“‘Wait and see’ might be preferred over taking action, as regret could very well be a consequence of surgical intervention, especially if gender identity evolves,” he warned.
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said his view is the same as the current policy in the U.K. — “which is that gender-affirming surgery, including mastectomies, should not be performed on minors.”
“There is too great a risk of [the patients] changing their minds later on,” he told Fox News Digital.
The doctor also warned of the potential long-term risk of puberty-blocking drugs on bones, fertility and mental health.
“‘Wait and see’ might be preferred over taking action, as regret could very well be a consequence of surgical intervention.”
“I think younger patients with gender dysphoria should be treated initially with psychotherapy and years spent exploring how they really feel — without the superimposition of politics or ideology,” Siegel added.
“I think way too many of these [procedures] are done in the U.S., as the data shows.”
Medical groups’ stances
Earlier this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reaffirmed its policy on supporting gender-affirming care for transgender youth, with plans to review new data and research that has been conducted since the original policy was released in 2018.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) and allied groups styling themselves as “Doctors Protecting Children” have published a declaration urging mainstream American medical associations like the AAP to abandon support for gender-affirming care.
Hundreds of people attend the “1 Million March for Children” rally organized by the parents’ group “Hands off Our Kids” at Queens Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Sept. 20, 2023. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“As physicians, together with nurses, psychotherapists and behavioral health clinicians, other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals, we have serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States who express discomfort with their biological sex,” the declaration states.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), for its part, provided the below statement to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
“ASPS does not issue policies favoring or opposing any surgical procedure. The Society does issue Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines, which provide recommendations for patient care based on the best available evidence in the scientific literature. To date, ASPS has not issued a clinical practice guideline on gender surgery for adolescents or adults. We are currently in the stage of assessing the available evidence regarding gender surgery in minors, which, as we stated, is generally viewed as low quality/low certainty.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to the AAP and the American Gynecological & Obstetrical Society (AGOS) for comment.
Chris Pandolfo of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
Intense rain, severe thunderstorms expected to ramp up Sunday. Flood risk increases.
Dramatic video shows North Carolina beach house wash away
Deadline extended for NM wildfire and flooding victims to apply for FEMA aid
Two injured, driver charged after UTV crash in eastern North Dakota
Carol L. Cogan, Youngstown , Ohio
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
At least 2 dead as tornadoes hit Alabama, damage homes across Southeast
Trump says Harris has gone 'full communist' after unveiling handout-filled economic policy: 'Never worked'
Most wildfires in western Türkiye extinguished, says minister
Trump campaign reset goes awry in Pennsylvania as he attacks Harris
As DNC approaches, party remains at impasse with with anti-Israel 'uncommitted' movement
Harris and Trump zero in on key swing state as US election race heats up
-
Ohio4 days agoOhio taxpayers sent families $966 million for private school tuition: Capitol Letter
-
Politics1 week agoKamala Harris shuts down anti-Israel protesters during campaign speech in Michigan: 'I'm speaking'
-
World5 days agoWhat could an EU Commissioner do to tackle the housing crisis?
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘It Ends With Us’: What the Critics Are Saying
-
Politics1 week agoTrump says Biden had the 'right to run,' but Dem Party 'took it away'
-
Politics1 week agoTim Walz 'misspoke' about using weapons ‘in war,' Harris campaign says: report
-
News1 week agoNewly released video shows chaos and confusion after Trump assassination attempt
-
Politics1 week agoProgressive women's groups silent on second gentleman Doug Emhoff's affair