Jun 30, 2015 03:02 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

High blood pressure patients have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a recent study The Standard Daily reported.

Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) found that the connection between  people with a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure and their lower risk for Alzheimer's disease may have more to do with anti-hypertension medication than the condition itself, The State Column reported.

"It's likely that this protective effect is coming from antihypertensive drugs," John Kauwe, co-author of the study and an associate professor of biology at Brigham Young University, said in a statement. "These drugs are already FDA approved. We need to take a serious look at them for Alzheimer's prevention."

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 17,000 individuals with Alzheimer's and more than 37,000 people without the disease, UPI reported.  Researchers from BYU collaborated with scholars from the University of Cambridge, Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Washington on this study.

They looked for links between Alzheimer's disease and a number of health conditions -- including diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol -- but only found a significant association between higher systolic blood pressure and reduced Alzheimer's risk.

"Our results are the opposite of what people might think," Paul Crane, co-author of the study and a University of Washington associate professor of internal medicine, said in a statement. "It may be that high blood pressure is protective, or it may be that something that people with high blood pressure are exposed to more often, such as antihypertensive medication, is protecting them from Alzheimer's disease."

The findings are detailed in the journal PLOS Medicine.

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