Blood Pressure Meds Reduce Memory Loss in Elderly

May 5, 2007 — Compared with other antihypertensive agents, centrally active angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) are associated with slower rates of cognitive decline over 6 years in elderly people free of dementia at baseline, according to findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) presented on May 5 at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society in Seattle, Washington. "ACE inhibitors that cross the blood-brain barrier reduce cognitive decline by 50% compared [with] the decline seen in people on other blood pressure medications," presenter and lead author Kaycee M. Sink, MD, MAS, an assistant professor of internal medicine in gerontology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told Medscape.