Diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure and excess weight in middle age may cause your brain to shrink and lead to future cognitive problems, according to a new study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers from the University of California at Davis measure the weight and height of more than 1,300 in their 50s and 60s from the US Framingham Offspring Study. They also carried out blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes tests, as well as scans to measure brain volume and mental tests.
Their results showed that diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight were each linked to potentially dangerous vascular changes in the brain.
The brain shrinks with age, even in healthy people. But in those with diabetes, the hippocampus (the brain's memory hub) shrank at a faster rate than in those without the condition. It also shrivelled faster in smokers, who along with those with high blood pressure were also more prone to white matter hyperintensities, or small areas of vascular brain damage.
Those who were overweight or obese were more likely to have a faster decrease in their brain volume and rapid loss of executive function (planning and decision making).
Study author Dr Charles DeCarli, director of UC Davis' Alzheimer's Disease Center and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said: "These factors appeared to cause the brain to lose volume, to develop lesions secondary to presumed vascular injury, and also appeared to affect its ability to plan and make decisions as quickly as 10 years later."
He added: "Our findings provide evidence that identifying these risk factors early in people of middle age could be useful in screening people for at-risk dementia and encouraging people to make changes to their lifestyle before it's too late."
Diabetes In Midlife Bad For Your Brain
Wed, 03 Aug 2011
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