It turns out that maintaining low blood pressure doesn’t just help prevent heart attacks – it can also keep your mind sharp.

Research presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago found that at-risk people whose blood pressure was kept lower than the recommended level had a significant reduction in mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, the precursor to dementia.

The research was part of the federally funded Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, or SPRINT, a large-scale, long-term clinical study that also measured the effects of lower blood pressure on cardiovascular and kidney function. The trial, which began in 2010, compared two strategies for maintaining blood pressure among 9,361 adults with an average age of around 68 with increased cardiovascular risk. One group received the standard care strategy at the time, targeting systolic blood pressure (the pressure on artery walls when the heart beats) to below 140 millimeters of mercury. The other group received the same medication, but in higher doses, with a target blood pressure of 120 mm or less.

Treatment was stopped in 2015, two years earlier than the planned end date, because of benefits in cardiovascular health that resulted last year in a revision of the standard care guidelines to below 130 mm. Researchers continued to monitor most participants until June 2018. The trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In SPRINT-MIND, the brain portion of the study, researchers used memory tests to assess participants for probable dementia (inability to perform daily activities independently) and early memory loss. The group receiving the intensive approach had a 19 percent lower rate of new cases of MCI.

A subgroup also was assessed, through brain magnetic resonance imaging, for the white-matter brain lesions that are associated with a higher risk of stroke, dementia and higher mortality. While both groups showed an increase in white-matter lesions, the increase was significantly less in the intensive treatment group.