Jan 17, 2019
VidCast: https://youtu.be/seKiQCg_VEw
Excess abdominal fat, particularly visceral fat around the bowels that creates a pear-shaped belly, can substantially raise your risk of heart disease even more than just being overweight or obese. A new study published in the journal Neurology now associates pear-shaped bellies with smaller brains.
The study reviewed over 9600 middle aged people and looked at the association between various weight parameters and brain volumes as determined by MRI imaging. Those with the smallest volumes of brain gray matter, the so-called thinking tissue, were those overweight with pear-shaped bodies. Overweight subjects without the expanded mid-sections had less reduction in gray matter compared with those of normal weight. Reduced gray matter is associated with less cognitive ability and eventually dementia.
These results only show an association, and we don’t yet know if obesity and excess abdominal fat make your brains shrink or if those with small brains are unhealthy eaters. Whichever the case, it’s smart to eat healthy and maintain normal weight.
Mark Hamer, G. David Batty. Association of body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio with brain structure. Neurology, Jan. 9, 2019; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000006879
#overweight #obesity #abdominalfat #pearshapedbody #brainatrophy #healthnews