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• Posted August 10, 2026

Heart Problems Linked To Brain Shrinkage Among People With Genetic Risk For Alzheimer's

Heart health appears to affect brain health among people with a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study says. 

People whose hearts are pumping blood less effectively tend to have brains that are shrinking faster, researchers recently reported in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

This is true among people who carry APOE-ε4, a genetic variant that is known to increase risk of Alzheimer’s, researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that even subtle reductions in cardiac function may have important implications for brain health, particularly among individuals at increased genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” lead researcher Dr. Elizabeth Moore said in a news release. She’s a clinical fellow in neurology at Mass General Brigham in Boston.

For the new study, researchers tracked more than 750 people with an average age of 67 over an 11-year period. Of these patients, nearly 270 carried the APOE-ε4 gene variant.

At the start of the study, patients had their heart health assessed. That included their cardiac output — the amount of blood the heart is pumping out.

MRI scans showed that those APOE-ε4 patients with lower cardiac output experienced accelerated shrinking of their brains.

A heart weakened in such a way could place vulnerable brain cells at risk by not providing them enough oxygen- and nutrient-filled blood, researchers speculated.

“This study highlights that a precision medicine approach that accounts for genetic information is an important direction for specifically tailoring prevention and screening efforts for Alzheimer’s disease,” Moore said.

More information

Stanford Medicine has more on the APOE-ε4 gene variant and Alzheimer’s disease.

SOURCES: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, news release, Aug. 4, 2026; Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, Aug. 4, 2026