Introduction
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, can cause many problems such as heart attacks, heart failure, aneurysm, and damage to your kidneys. But did you also know that hypertension can cause memory loss?
It has been determined that high blood pressure can cause memory problems. In fact it can cause a type of dementia called vascular dementia.
How Hypertension Affects Memory
When you develop hypertension your blood vessels can be damaged and even those that carry blood to your brain may also be damaged. When this happens, plaque will build up in the blood vessels, and when you develop plaque in the blood stream, the flow of blood is restricted. The plaque can then become dislodged and when this happens the plaque may flow to blood vessels in your brain.
If the plaque is big enough, or the blood vessel is small, complete blockage of the artery may occur. When this happens the brain cells fed by the blocked blood vessel will begin to die.
If you have a series of small strokes, damage to small parts of the brain will occur. This could eventually lead to the development of vascular dementia. This is one of the most common types of dementia that occurs today. In many cases these strokes are so small that the victim does not even notice that the stroke has occurred. Eventually these small strokes add up and the lost brain cells result in confusion, memory loss and other typical signs of dementia.
The difficulty with this type of dementia is that it could be occurring now without you even knowing it is occurring. That is because high blood pressure is not something you can feel but must be measured by a machine.
Prevention
High blood pressure can be controlled and prevented.
Controlling High Hypertension - If you have high blood pressure your doctor will usually prescribe medication to bring it down. My friend has a blood pressure that runs above 180/90 mmHg. When he takes the medication prescribed by his doctor, he can lower his blood pressure to where it is less than 120/70.Preventing High Blood Pressure - In some cases high blood pressure is genetic and cannot be prevented but only controlled. If your family does not have a history of high blood, then you want to ensure you do not get it by eating unsaturated food, whole grains, stop smoking and exercise.Walter Chase made a life style change when he was 35. When that happened he started taking supplements, exercising, which included weight lifting and running. Walter started taking Omega - 3 supplements five years ago and has seen many positive benefit. Receive a free e-book all about the benefits of Omega-3, at his web site http://www.goodfattyacids.com/.
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