Blood Pressure, Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: Some alternative therapies

Blood pressure gauge
Originally uploaded by stephanebenito

We know that both Alzheimer's disease and dementia are complex diseases that result from a culmination of several different triggers. One trigger that people are often surprised to know increase your risks of both Alzheimer's disease and dementia is high blood pressure. So what US health authorities are now doing is testing to see if current blood pressure drugs have the ability to slow or even reverse Alzheimer's disease and dementia. This is an encouraging change from trying to cover up symptoms to actually addressing the underlying causes. However as i continually note this is only one part of the disease system all of which will need addressing to beat Alzheimer's disease or dementia.

So lets start with a little recap on the ability of high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) to contribute to Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Firstly when you have high blood pressure this puts mechanical stress on the blood vessels. This causes damage to them which results in two responses. Formation of free radicals and inflammation. Both these things are underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease and dementia and in particular vascular dementia. So it is easy to see how reducing blood pressure could aid Alzheimer's disease and dementia. High blood pressure however is not the sole cause of inflammation and free radical generation in Alzheimer's disease and dementia which is why other strategies are also needed.

That said it will not hurt to reduce your blood pressure. So how do we go about doing that? Well you could go to your doctor and request anti-hypertension drugs. This could work but may be expensive and be accompanied by unpleasant side effects. Omega 3 fatty acids and cocoa have proven blood pressure lowering effects.

Numerous double blind placebo controlled experiments have been conducted in humans using omega 3 oils. These consistently show that it reduces high blood pressure while at the same time improving blood pressure control. In addition to this omega 3 has significant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Cocoa is what we make chocolate out of. It is extremely rich in antioxidant flavanols some of which have antihypertensive properties similar to current pharmaceutical drugs. One very recent study in 50 people with mild hypertension showed that consumption of cocoa flavanols over a 6 week period significantly reduced blood pressure. Doses required to achieve this reduction were high.

Do yourself a favor and start eating more fish and dark chocolate. Not only can they reduce blood pressure but they also are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Perfect for beating Alzheimer's disease and dementia.