Researchers Claim Brains of the Elderly Obese Show More Atrophy
According to researchers with the University of Pittsburgh and UCLA Schools of Medicine, brain scans of 94 elderly individuals showed that “obese subjects with a high BMI (BMI>30) showed atrophy of the frontal lobes [planning and memory functions], anterior cingulate gyrus [attention and executive functions], hippocampus [long-term memory], and thalamus [sensory information processing and relay] compared with individuals with a normal BMI (18.5-25).” Cyrus Raji, et al., “Brain Structure and Obesity,” Human Brain Mapping, August 6, 2009. They also apparently found that higher BMI was associated with lower brain volumes in overweight and obese elderly subjects. The scientists conclude, “Obesity is therefore associated with detectable brain volume deficits in cognitively normal elderly subjects.”
Senior author Paul Thompson, UCLA professor of neurology, was quoted as saying, “That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain. But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control.” Thompson also reportedly said that obese people’s brains “looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean, and in overweight people looked eight years older.” See LiveScience.com, August 25, 2009.
