Do you get up suddenly and feel dizzy?/ You may be at risk of this disease

2023-11-19 09:55:00, Shëndeti CNA

Do you get up suddenly and feel dizzy?/ You may be at risk of this disease

Illustrative photo

People who feel dizzy when they stand up from a sitting position, i.e. postural hypotension, may be at higher risk for a serious illness. See what the latest studies suggest.

The sudden dizziness some people feel when they suddenly stand up from a sitting position should be taken more seriously, a new study claims. Specifically, orthostatic hypotension, as the above condition is called, occurs when a person's blood pressure drops sharply and suddenly after moving to a standing position, according to a new study it may indicate an increased risk of dementia in the future.

The study, published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found the association with cognitive decline syndrome only in people who experienced a drop in systolic blood pressure, not in those who only had a drop in diastolic blood pressure.

Systolic pressure is the first number in the blood pressure measurement, and orthostatic systolic hypotension was defined as a drop of at least 15 mmHg after standing up from a sitting position.

The study included 2,131 people with an average age of 73 and no medical history of dementia. Blood pressure measurements were taken at the start of the study and after one, three and five years. In total, 15% of the elderly presented orthostatic hypotension, 9% orthostatic systolic hypotension and 6% orthostatic diastolic hypotension.

During the next 12 years, the health assessment of the participants showed that 462 people (22% of the total) developed dementia.

People with orthostatic systolic hypotension were almost 40% more likely to develop dementia.

The researchers took into account other factors that can increase the chances of dementia, such as diabetes, smoking and alcohol consumption, the chances of developing the disease increased by 37% in those who had orthostatic systolic hypotension.

A second important finding showed that greater changes in systolic blood pressure during repositioning over time equally increased the odds of dementia.

This is the conclusion that the researchers divided the participants according to blood pressure values ??at the time of the hypotensive event and their follow-up: 24% of people in the group with the largest fluctuations in systolic values ??later developed dementia, compared with 19% of people in the group with the smallest fluctuations. Adding third dementia risk factors increased the rate to 35% for the first group.

According to study leader Laure Rouch, Pharm.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, measuring and controlling values ??during orthostatic hypotension may appear to act in a preventive and protective manner for cognitive function, however this is a simple observational study that did not distinguish between cases of dementia in vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease./ CNA