Professor Sarah Berry

So I think we're in for a treat.

Can we just start at the beginning, Sanjay?

And so like during my day, if my heart rate goes up because I'm running to catch the bus, are you saying that literally because my heart rate has gone up, then suddenly my blood pressure goes up almost sort of in proportion to my heart rate?

I'm not understanding the harm yet.

So long-term, I understand I don't want to die of a heart attack or I don't want to get dementia.

Help me to understand if this blood pressure keeps up high long-term.

Do I care about these little clots in my tiny blood vessels?

So I just want to understand, Sanjay, because it's a bit nuanced.

Are you saying if my blood pressure is high, don't worry about it.

It's not relevant for my health.

Everything about high blood pressure is nonsense.

Or are you saying something else?

Before we move on, can you clarify what would happen if my blood pressure is high and I don't do anything to treat that?

Listening to that, firstly, it's pretty serious if you do nothing about it, is my takeaway.

Absolutely.

But the second thing I'm really surprised by is I had no idea it had anything to do with my brain or dementia.

I always think about blood pressure as something to do with my heart and heart attacks.

Have we always known this?

So I could have high blood pressure and it could be causing this like very small damage into my brain, for example, over as long as 20 years before anyone sees the results of dementia.

Yeah, absolutely.