Hypertension treatment may slow down Alzheimer’s progression

Researchers have found that nilvadipine, a drug that doctors regularly use to treat hypertension, may help people with Alzheimer’s disease by increasing blood flow to the brain. New research suggests that a high blood pressure drug may slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia . This progressive disorder causes the degeneration and, ultimately, the death of brain cells. People with dementia experience cognitive decline, and have issues making judgments and performing everyday tasks. Dementia affects millions of people worldwide. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, the number of people with dementia was close to 50 million n 2017 , and the organization say this number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 75 million people by 2030. In the United States, Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death . Researchers have been looking for treatments to slow the progression of the disorder and recently found that the hypertension drug nilvadipine may have positive effects on the cerebral blood flow of those with Alzheimer’s disease. The results appear in the journal Hypertension . How nilvadipine affects cerebral blood flow Nilvadipine is a calcium channel blocker that leads to vascular relaxation and lowers blood pressure , and people often use it to treat hypertension. The objective of the latest study, which included 44 participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, was to find out whether nilvadipine could slow the progression of the disorder. "Even though no medical treatment is without risk, getting treatment for high blood pressure could be important to maintain brain health in patients with Alzheimer’s disease," says Dr. Jurgen Claassen, Ph.D., associate professor at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and lead author of the study. The researchers randomly gave nilvadipine or a placebo to the […]

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