WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN TOO

Middle-age men and women with cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension and high cholesterol are at risk not only for coronary heart disease, but also for later dementia, according to French researchers.

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For the study, 3,486 men and 1,341 women with an average age of 55 underwent cognitive tests three times over 10 years. The tests measured reasoning, memory, fluency and vocabulary. Participants received a Framingham risk score that is used to predict 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event. It is based on age, sex, HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and whether they smoked or had diabetes.

The study found people who had higher cardiovascular risk were more likely to have lower cognitive function and a faster rate of overall cognitive decline compared to those with the lowest risk of heart disease. A 10-percent higher cardiovascular risk was associated with poorer cognitive test scores in all areas except reasoning for men and fluency for women. For example, a 10 percent higher cardiovascular risk was associated with a 2.8 percent lower score in the test of memory for men and a 7.1 percent lower score in the memory test for women.

Higher cardiovascular risk was also associated with a 10-year faster rate of overall cognitive decline in both men and women compared to those with lower cardiovascular risk

This study provides people with risk factors for heart attacks even more reasons to manage these conditions,” “Both the heart and brain receive their blood supply through arteries that have the same vulnerabilities to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking

The results of the study   will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 63rd Annual Meeting in Honolulu April 9 to April 16, 2011.