Low Diastolic Pressure Linked to Brain Atrophy

[Cece]

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/ ... id=5517461

Shrinkage in subcortical regions of the brain was greater in patients with low baseline diastolic blood pressure in a prospective study, researchers said.

This is research in the normal population diagnosed with arterial disease, not MS, but it raises questions.
Is there a trend among people with MS to have lower blood pressure? Could this account for any of the brain atrophy seen in MS? Does treatment of CCSVI normalize blood pressure, and if it does this, is this because of improvements in the autonomic nervous system or restoration of healthy cerebral blood flow or something else? The trend of people with MS having low blood pressure is something we've discussed here, but I don't know if there is pubmed research in support of this?

[PointsNorth]

Thx for the info Cece. Perhaps we should do informal poll here?

[jimmylegs]

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/chronic-c ... 14293.html (2010 thread)

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-d ... c9665.html (poll started 2010 and bumped in jan of this year - add your input here, no sense having to collate miscellaneous polls right? i'm assuming it's uncommon to have low BP and normal diastolic..)

[Cece]

Thanks, jimmylegs, I knew we'd seen discussion of low blood pressure maybe being associated with MS before.

[jimmylegs]

np. fwiw I saw a study in elderly patients which concluded low blood pressure was secondary to brain atrophy. i'll see if I can find the link.

also fwiw I had chronic low blood pressure for decades and at an annual doc's appt one year they asked me about hydration. since then I have made an effort where hydration is concerned and I have had normal blood pressure ever since.