Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 13 July 2018

Late-life high blood pressure may harm the brain, study says

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE once a year during the to understand the implica-
AP Chief Medical Writer study — a strength of this tions, Arvanitakis said.
Decades ago, hundreds work over some previous "It's a pretty strong study,"
of nuns and priests made research that just relied on said James Hendrix, direc-
an extraordinary decision: people to say whether they tor of global science initia-
They agreed to donate had high pressure or not. tives at the Alzheimer's As-
their brains upon death to After each participant sociation. "Autopsy data
science, hoping to help died, researchers exam- is really powerful" and has
solve mysteries about Al- ined their brains for areas been the gold standard for
zheimer's and other diseas- of dead tissue caused by diagnosing Alzheimer's for
es. Now, a study that used lack of blood supply. These many years, he said.
their gifts is giving some blighted areas can be tiny With Alzheimer's, changes
clues. It reveals that high and cause no symptoms, in the brain occur a de-
blood pressure late in life so they're sometimes called cade or more before symp-
might harm the brain. evidence of "silent strokes." toms do, so high blood
Autopsies on nearly 1,300 About half of the study pressure may have been
older people, including participants had one or doing damage well before
about 640 clergy mem- more of these, and the risk the age when these peo-
bers, found more signs of This Oct. 7, 2003 file photo shows a closeup of a human brain was greater for those with ple enrolled in the study, he
damage and one of the affected by Alzheimer's disease on display at the Museum of higher blood pressure. For said.
hallmarks of Alzheimer's dis- Neuroanatomy at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y. example, people with an How might high pressure do
Associated Press
ease in the brains of those average top reading of 147 harm?
with higher blood pres- "We can't be alarmist. This the Religious Orders Study had a 46 percent greater "Lower blood pressure re-
sure than among those is preliminary data" that of Catholic clergy through- risk of having one or more duces the risk of those
with pressure closer to nor- needs to be validated out the United States. of the bad spots than those blood vessel blockages"
mal, researchers reported by others, said the study All were over 65 and with- with an average top read- that can cause a silent
Wednesday. leader, Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis out known dementia at the ing of 134. stroke, said another inde-
The study does not prove of Rush University Medical start and were followed un- People with higher bottom pendent expert, the Mayo
cause and effect, and it Center in Chicago. "It's far til they died — at an aver- blood pressure readings Clinic's Dr. David Knopman.
does not yet provide a too soon to make recom- age age of 89 and after an also had a greater risk for The work shows that "treat-
comparison of rates of de- mendations about blood average of eight years in this problem. ing blood pressure through-
mentia or its most common pressure in older people the study. Researchers also found a out the lifespan is impor-
form, Alzheimer's — those based on this study." Two-thirds had high blood link between higher pres- tant."
results will take longer to The research began in 1994 pressure, defined as a top sure and one of the signs Knopman is a spokesman
parse. But it challenges a and combined people reading of 140 or more of Alzheimer's — tangles of for the American Academy
theory that high pressure is from three studies of ag- when the study began (it's a protein called tau — but of Neurology, whose jour-
not as harmful in old age ing who agreed to donate now 130 under new guide- not another Alzheimer's nal, Neurology, published
as it is when people are their brains for autopsy lines adopted last fall.) Their hallmark, amyloid plaques. the study. Federal grants
younger. upon their death, including pressures were measured This needs further research paid for the work.q

Ancient 'Iceman' shows signs

of a well-balanced last meal

By EMILIANO RODRIGUEZ searchers said. medicine for parasites pre-
MEGA On the menu, described viously found in his gut.
Associated Press Thursday in the journal Cur- "It was very impressive," said
NEW YORK (AP) — Talk rent Biology, were the fat lead author Frank Maixner,
about a paleo diet. Scien- and meat of a wild goat, a microbiologist at the In-
tists have uncovered the meat of a red deer and stitute for Mummy Studies
last meal of a frozen hunter whole wheat seeds, which in Bolzano, Italy. "We could
who died 5,300 years ago Oetzi ate shortly before his see chunks and pieces of
in the Alps. death. food with (the) naked eye."
The stomach contents of Traces of fern leaves and Though the researchers
the corpse, widely known spores were also discov- had previously examined
In this November 2010 photo provided by the South Tyrol as Oetzi the Iceman, of- ered in Oetzi's stomach. Oetzi's intestines, this was
Museum of Archaeology, researchers examine the body of a fer a snapshot of what an- Scientists think he may the first time they could
frozen hunter known as Oetzi the Iceman to sample his stomach cient Europeans ate more have swallowed the plant look into his stomach.The
contents in Bolzano, Italy.
Associated Press than five millennia ago, re- unintentionally or as a reason is nothing short of
grotesque.Following Oetzi's
death, the organ moved
upwards. It was not un-
til 2009, 18 years after his
remains were discovered
near the Italy-Austria bor-
der, that a radiologist de-
tected it behind the rib
cage. And it was full. After
slowly defrosting the body,
the team took samples and
rehydrated them.q