Are middle-aged people who gain weight and have abdominal obesity prone to dementia? Research: Reduced gray matter volume in the brain increases the risk of executive function decline by 30%
Is excess visceral fat likely to cause dementia? The higher the body fat, the less gray matter in the brain.
With the evolution of society, most modern people are sedentary and have abdominal fat accumulation. Coupled with the rapid aging of the population in developed countries, obesity and dementia will become the most important health problems. However, do differences in the location of fat accumulation affect specific disease risks?
A study of more than 200 middle-aged men and women found that abdominal fat accumulation can adversely affect brain health, and is more harmful to men than women. Increased liver fat may lead to a 17% reduction in gray matter volume in the brain. This shows that people should pay more attention to the distribution of body fat, including visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and ectopic fat.
Obesity is a risk factor for cognitive dysfunction. In order to explore the impact of body fat distribution on brain cognitive function, a research team from Tel Aviv University School of Medicine in Israel, one of the top 100 colleges in the world, convened a group of students with an average age of 59 in 2024. Israeli residents, all of whom were at high risk for having a family history of dementia, had their subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, and ectopic fat scanned through abdominal MRI.
Does abdominal obesity affect cognitive function? Study: Executive function may decline by 32%
When the human body absorbs too many calories, it will store and accumulate energy in the form of fat. When fat accumulates in abnormal places, it is called ectopic fat. The most common organs where ectopic fat accumulates in the human body are the liver and pancreas. Once " “Fat pancreas” may affect normal insulin sensitivity, leading to increased insulin resistance and affecting blood sugar control, increasing the risk of diabetes.
The research team found that men with a higher BMI have a higher risk of pancreatic fat. After adjusting for cardiovascular risk factor parameters, they found that an increase in pancreatic fat percentage increases the risk of cognitive dysfunction in men by about 33%, as well as a decline in executive function. The risk is 32%. Moreover, the higher the proportion of pancreatic fat in men is correlated with the smaller hippocampal volume. Higher visceral fat in men is also associated with lower medial frontal gyrus volume. However, the study results pointed out that liver fat was not significantly related to brain size or cognitive dysfunction in either men or women.
Body fat number more dangerous than BMI? Not covering all middle-aged groups
Should visceral fat take precedence over pure body mass index (BMI) in assessing risks to brain health? The research team believes that the location of fat accumulation may be one of the risk factors for predicting cognitive function and dementia risk, and it seems to be more obvious in middle-aged men. In the future, more research is needed on the correlation between pancreatic fat ratio, cognitive function, and brain volume to find more effective dementia prevention strategies.
However, this study is a cross-sectional study within the same time and space, and it cannot be used to infer the causal relationship between pancreatic fat and cognitive dysfunction. Moreover, the sample size does not cover all middle-aged groups and only involves families with Alzheimer’s disease. high-risk members of history. In addition, the study did not differentiate between the causes of fat accumulation in the subjects, including menopause, medication, chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, daily exercise and dietary factors.
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