Heart disease can directly cause brain dysfunction early on which could lead to dementia and can triple the amount of an Alzheimer’s protein in the brain, say scientists.
The new research, published in eLife, has found that heart disease causes a breakdown of a key brain function which links brain activity and blood flow, meaning the brain gets less blood for the same amount of activity.
This is happening in heart disease patients before the build up of fat in the brain’s blood vessels (atherosclerosis) and is a prelude to dementia. Until now it has been unclear how some forms of vascular dementia can happen years before…
