Young adults with healthy blood pressure could have better mental function later in life than those with high blood pressure during this time period.
"We know these risk factors are important later in life but what is new is that they seem to be important for cognitive health even going from young to mid adulthood," lead author Dr. Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters. "This is the first time anyone has shown this."
The researchers looked at 3,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 for 25 years to see how heart health related to mental function throughout adulthood.
Throughout the study researchers measured the participants' "blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels" after fasting, Reuters reported. The team also looked at "memory and learning, brain aging and decision processing speed."
The team took other health factors into account such as weight, smoking, and drinking habits.
The researchers found that high blood pressure readings early in life were linked to poor scores on all three of the mental health examinations down the road. The same was true for those with higher blood glucose levels and those who were considered to be diabetic. In diabetics blood sugar level did not seem to be linked to "mental acuity." People with high cholesterol only scored lower on the learning and memory test later in life.
It is common for young adults to have "high normal" heart health markers.
"The differences (in cognition) are probably too small to be clinically significant, but the question is whether this is the beginning of something later," Yeffe said.
"I find it fascinating because we know that midlife risk factors predict late life cognitive decline, but this is the first study to push it back even further. We're finding subtle changes early that have cumulatively negative effects," Doctor Jennifer G. Robinson told Reuters. "The public health data is extremely clear."
