Alzheimer’s blood marker linked to standing blood pressure drops
In a 15-year study of 1,492 older adults, an elevated Alzheimer’s-related blood marker tracked with progressively larger blood pressure drops upon standing.
Limit: Changes in NfL during follow-up were not measured alongside worsening blood pressure drops
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational cohort study followed 1,492 community-dwelling adults in Sweden aged 60 and older, with a median age of 66 years and 62% women, who had no dementia or parkinsonism at baseline. Over 15 years, researchers repeatedly measured blood pressure differences between lying down and standing up. They also measured baseline blood levels of three Alzheimer’s-related markers, including neurofilament light chain, or NfL.
During follow-up, 613 participants, or 41%, developed orthostatic hypotension, a condition where blood pressure drops upon standing. Elevated baseline NfL levels were associated with steeper worsening of standing blood pressure drops over time. The two other markers showed no significant link with these changes. Across the cohort, larger standing blood pressure drops were also independently linked to an increased risk of death.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that nerve cell deterioration without obvious symptoms may contribute to age-related instability in blood pressure control.
Caveats
This observational study, reported in a conference abstract, cannot show that nerve cell deterioration causes worsening blood pressure control. Participants came from a single Swedish community, and the study excluded people with dementia or parkinsonism at baseline.
The paper
University of Milan Bicocca; Karolinska Institutet
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
