Brains of overweight people 'ten years older'

Discussion in 'Health & Fitness' started by Plazma Inferno!, Aug 5, 2016.

  1. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    Our brains naturally shrink with age, but scientists are increasingly recognising that obesity – already linked to conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease – may also affect the onset and progression of brain ageing; however, direct studies to support this link are lacking.
    In a cross-sectional study – in other words, a study that looks at data from individuals at one point in time – researchers looked at the impact of obesity on brain structure across the adult lifespan to investigate whether obesity was associated with brain changes characteristic of ageing. The team studied data from 473 individuals between the ages of 20 and 87, recruited by the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience. The results show that an overweight person at, say, 50 years old had a comparable white matter volume to a lean person aged 60 years, implying a difference in brain age of 10 years.
    Despite the clear differences in the volume of white matter between lean and overweight individuals, the researchers found no connection between being overweight or obese and an individual’s cognitive abilities, as measured using a standard test similar to an IQ test.

    http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/...rs-older-than-lean-counterparts-at-middle-age
     

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