Previous research suggests that obesity increases the risk of chronic disease including heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. Obesity in middle age may also increase the risk of dementia decades later. Now research reports that the brains of obese seniors looked 16 years older than the brain of lean seniors. Furthermore, the brain size of overweight and obese seniors were smaller than lean seniors.
The study, published in Human Brain Mapping, investigated the relationship of brain structure and obesity. Researchers at UCLA examined brain images of 94 seniors in their 70s who did not have dementia or other cognitive disorders. The brain scans were transformed into detailed three-dimensional maps (TMI or tensor based morphometry).
The researchers found that the brains of overweight seniors were 6 percent smaller and the brains of obese participants were 8 percent smaller than lean seniors. The brain shrinkage was primarily found in the frontal and temporal lobes, important areas for memory and planning. This suggests an increased risk of dementia.
"Higher BMI was associated with lower brain volumes in overweight and obese elderly subjects," the study authors conclude. "Obesity is therefore associated with detectable brain volume deficits in cognitively normal elderly subjects."
These findings may explain why overweight people are more prone to dementia.
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