LOS ANGELES: There are several potentially modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including obesity, diabetes and smoking, but the causality of these associations is unclear. New insights come from an analysis of the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP) database, which includes 17,008 individuals with AD and 37,154 cognitively normal elderly controls.
Using a technique called Mendelian randomization to test causality, the researchers found that gene variants that predict higher systolic blood pressure are associated with a high probability of taking antihypertensive medication and with a decreased risk of AD…