Smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes or middle-aged overweight and obesity may contribute to a reduction in brain volume and a faster development of dementia, according to a study in the journal Neurology.
All these factors lead to damage to blood vessels, which is associated with the risk of local ischemia of the nervous tissue and its degeneration, the authors of the study remind.
Our results show that identifying these risk factors early can help identify middle-aged people who are most at risk of dementia and encourage them to change their lifestyle before it’s too late, commented Charles DeCarli of the University of California, Sacramento, contributor to the study.
Together with colleagues, he analyzed the data collected from 1.352 people with an average age of 54. Initially, no one was diagnosed with dementia symptoms, ie decreased memory and other mental abilities. In addition, people after a stroke were excluded from the study because it may contribute to the deterioration of intellectual performance. The research was part of a long-term, large-scale study called the Framingham Offspring Study.
Participants had blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels measured and tested for diabetes. Overweight or obesity was assessed on the basis of the so-called body mass index (BMI), which is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. For each, the waist-to-hip ratio was also calculated, which may be an indicator of abdominal obesity, considered a risk factor for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. After about 7 years, starting from the first examination, patients began to examine their brains using magnetic resonance imaging.
It turned out that people with arterial hypertension developed degenerative changes in the white matter of the brain, which is associated with local ischemia of nervous tissue, faster than in subjects with normal blood pressure. In addition, this group had a faster decline in performance on tests for executive brain functions such as planning and decision making. The researchers estimated that the number of points obtained by people in this group corresponded to people who were biologically older by 5-8 years.
In middle-aged patients with diabetes, the volume of the brain structure called the hippocampus decreased faster than in those without glucose metabolism disorders. The hippocampus is i.a. responsible for memory processes.
In contrast, cigarette smokers had a faster decrease in total brain volume and hippocampal volume than non-smokers. They also developed degenerative changes in white matter faster.
Middle-aged obese people were more often in the group where executive functions deteriorated most rapidly. And respondents with a high hip belt volume index were more often classified as those who experienced the fastest loss of brain volume.
According to DeCarli, the results of his team’s research show that hypertension, diabetes, smoking, and unnecessary kilograms in middle-aged people contribute to faster reduction of brain volume and faster deterioration of mental performance 10 years later.
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