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UCSF Scientists Link Obesity and Brain Aging By Darya Pino Being overweight or obese is known to be associated with higher risk for many health conditions including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and some kinds of cancer. New research from scientists at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center now extend this list, showing that extra weight is also correlated with markers of cognitive decline. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that excess weight is not only bad for the body, but bad for the mind as well. Several studies over the past few years have shown a clear association between being overweight in midlife and having an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease later in life. The current study shows a correlation between extra body weight and chemical markers in the brain that are known to be associated with dementia. Importantly, besides the extra weight these were otherwise healthy individuals that have shown no other signs of cognitive decline. “These results suggest that brains of people who are overweight or obese age faster than the brains of people of normal weight and thus these individuals are at an increased risk of developing dementia,”says Dr. Dieter Meyerhoff, the principal investigator of the study. The study used magnetic resonance imaging to look at metabolites in the brain that are associated with increased risk for dementia. Looking at 50 healthy individuals, the researchers found that those with a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 30 (overweight) or above 30 (obese) had deficiencies in N-acetyl-aspartate (NNA) in several areas of the brain and also decreased choline containing compounds compared with normal weight individuals. Decreased levels of these markers are known to be associated with dementia. One weakness of the study is that BMI was the only factor that was evaluated when looking for changes in brain chemistry. Additional information such as cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin levels and individual diet and exercise patterns may also be important when evaluating this information and may be more relevant to the brain than BMI alone. The findings are published in the online Early View section of Annals of Neurology.
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