It is essential to manage blood pressure and cholesterol to prevent dementia, a terrible disease that is difficult to reverse once it develops.
Managing your blood pressure reduces your risk of developing dementia. A research team at UNSW University in Australia analyzed data from 28,008 hypertensive patients and found that lowering systolic blood pressure by 10 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 4 mmHg lowered the risk of developing dementia by an average of 13%. It is good to receive high blood pressure treatment as soon as possible, because the lower the existing blood pressure and the younger the age, the greater the effect of reducing the risk of developing dementia.
When you control your blood pressure, you also need to manage your cholesterol. This is because blood pressure and cholesterol are very closely linked. When cholesterol builds up and narrows blood vessels, blood pressure rises, and when blood vessels are damaged by high blood pressure, cholesterol easily builds up once more. High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels increase the risk of severe diseases such as myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, and stroke, as well as dementia. Cholesterol itself is also a direct risk factor for dementia. A study of over 1.8 million people in the UK found that people with LDL cholesterol levels above 190 mg/dL had a 59% higher risk of developing dementia than those with very low levels (less than 100 mg/dL).
A representative health functional food ingredient that helps control blood pressure and improve cholesterol is Cuban policosanol-sugar cane wax alcohol. It has been confirmed that taking 20 mg of policosanol extracted and refined from Cuban sugarcane wax a day increases HDL, which is called good cholesterol, by 29.9% (Cuba National Institute of Science). A high level of HDL helps to control blood pressure as well as prevent dementia. This is because HDL acts as a cleaner that cleans blood pressure-raising cholesterol and beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that increase the risk of dementia.
