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If you are putting off treatment for high blood pressure and making the necessary lifestyle changes that go with metabolic disorders because you think you\u2019re not suffering ill effects yet – think again.<\/p>\nIf you are putting off treatment for high blood pressure and making the necessary lifestyle changes that go with metabolic disorders because you think you\u2019re not suffering ill effects yet – think again.<\/p>\n
Using a new imaging technique, scientists are now able to identify damage occurring long before symptoms ever crop up. And the damage is the kind you can\u2019t undo.<\/p>\n
Scientists at Sapienza University in Rome recently discovered an MRI enhancement that can detect damage to organs caused by high blood pressure \u2013 long before a person ever becomes symptomatic.<\/p>\n
An MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, is a special exam that looks at the structure of tissues in the body. While an MRI is extremely useful in detecting damage to structure, it hasn\u2019t been used to detect faults in function\u2026until now.<\/p>\n
A new enhancement procedure to MRI is garnering attention for its ability to bridge the function diagnosis gap. Diffusion Tensor Imaging, or DTI, can be used to detect changes in not only the structure of the brain and other organs affected by high blood pressure, but also decreases in function of those same organs.<\/p>\n
Brain damage is particularly bad because once that tissue is destroyed, there is no getting it back. Researchers have been gathering a tremendous but alarming body of evidence to show that high blood pressure is a leading risk factor for the development of dementia diseases such as Alzheimer\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Once a person shows signs of mental deficiencies, the ball has already been rolling down the hill and it\u2019s too late to stop it. Conventional and emerging approaches seem only to be able to slow the progression, not reverse it. <\/p>\n
There is no cure for Alzheimer\u2019s disease once it becomes full blown.<\/p>\n
However, finding out about the changes in structure and function early, while there is still time to reverse the damage and make changes is critical to preventing the disease.<\/p>\n
Many people with high blood pressure \u2013 which affects 1 in 4 Americans \u2013 think that if they aren\u2019t suffering from visible complications of the disease there must not be any. Or, they think their blood pressure medications are enough to ward off bad events.<\/p>\n
But the new study shows that high blood pressure causes brain damage, even if it\u2019s managed using blood pressure medications.<\/p>\n
The only way to lower blood pressure and to ward off the dangerous effects it causes is to actually tackle the underlying causes of the high blood pressure. And to do that, you must use natural lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n