Is high blood pressure a sign or cause of Alzheimer’s? BSIP SA / Alamy Stock Photo

A study of more than 1200 people around the age of 80 has suggested that high blood pressure in later life is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers tracked volunteers’ blood pressure for an average of eight years before their death, before performing autopsies to look for signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. These included plaques of sticky amyloid protein between brain cells, and tangles of tau proteins inside them.

The scientists observed that participants with a higher average systolic blood pressure …