The Blood Pressure Number That Cuts Dementia Risk | Dr. Jeremy Pruzin, MD
Originally published on YouTube on 14 September 2026.
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkUqj8Crzbg
Half of this community asked me the opposite question I expected. Not how to get their blood pressure down. Whether theirs is already too low, and whether it is starving their brain.
Several had been told exactly that by their own neurologist. So I took it to the researcher whose name is on the new analysis.
Dr. Jeremy Pruzin is a cognitive and behavioral neurologist and physician-researcher at Banner Alzheimer's Institute, and Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. He trained in cognitive neurology at Mass General Brigham and Harvard, and he runs a twenty one million dollar federally funded biomarker study inside the SPRINT blood pressure trial.
Every question in this hour came from a member of The Phoenix Community, by name.
WANT YOUR QUESTION IN THE NEXT INTERVIEW?
That is the whole point of the community. You join, you ask, and I take it to the person who actually studies it.
https://apoe4.link/JeremyP1
🔗 RESOURCES:
→ Free APOE4 Guide: https://apoe4.link/JeremyP1G
→ Weekly Newsletter: https://apoe4.link/JeremyP1N
A NOTE ON WHAT THIS IS
This is an educational conversation. It is not medical advice and it does not create a doctor-patient relationship with anyone watching. Members shared their own readings and their own diagnoses in the thread, so I used their first names and then asked Dr. Pruzin the general version of each question. Nobody is being treated on camera. Take this to your own physician and have a better appointment than you would have had.
Dr. Pruzin also runs his own group, the Preventing Alzheimer's Community, which runs webinars on treatments, blood tests and prevention trials. That is his, not mine: https://pacocommunity.com/
WHAT WE COVER
00:00 Teaser
00:54 Podcast Introduction
01:51 The one risk factor nobody is tracking
03:27 Why blood pressure, out of everything in Alzheimer's research
05:44 What high blood pressure physically does to your brain
09:39 Baseline MRI for APOE4 carriers: worth it or not?
12:17 Amyloid in your blood vessels: microbleeds, siderosis, and blood thinner risk
15:37 What the SPRINT trial actually was
20:34 Do the SPRINT results apply if you're not high-risk?
23:55 The APOE4 analysis, and what it does and does not show
27:17 Absolute vs. relative risk reduction, explained with a discount analogy
29:52 When low blood pressure is fine, and when it's not
39:24 How to actually measure your blood pressure correctly
41:42 Arm cuff vs. central pressure vs. pulse pressure
44:20 His personal BP target, and when treatment should start
47:41 Do wearables like the Oura ring measure this accurately?
48:52 Do BP supplements and nitric oxide boosters actually work?
52:48 His single piece of advice for every APOE4 carrier
55:34 Outro