Obesity is a burden in addition to brain health and could make Alzheimer’s disease worse, according to a new study.
The advanced multimodal neuroimaging study conducted by the University of Sheffield based in the UK showed that obesity may contribute to thin neural vulnerability, while maintaining a healthy weight in Alzheimer’s disease depression helps maintain brain structure.
The findings, published in Journal Reports of Alzheimer’s Disease recently, also clarifying the potential impact of mid-life obesity on brain health in old age.
“It is estimated that more than 50 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease and despite decades of advanced studies and a major global research effort we still do not have a cure for this serious disease,” said the study’s lead author. Professor. Annalena Venneri from the university’s Institute of Neuroscience and Sheffield NIHR Biomedical Research Center.
“Prevention plays such an important role in the fight against the disease. It is important to emphasize that this study does not show that obesity causes Alzheimer’s, but what it does show is that being obese is a burden in addition to brain health and may make the disease worse. worse, ”she said.
The diseases that cause depression such as Alzheimer’s and viral depression lie on the back for several years, so wait until your 60s to lose weight is too late, she said.
“We need to start thinking about brain health and prevent these diseases much earlier. It is vital that children and adolescents are educated about the overweight burden on multiple species including neurodegenerative diseases, ”said Venneri.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University of Eastern Finland studied MRI brain scans from 47 clinically diagnosed patients with Alzheimer’s disease depression, 68 patients with debilitating mental disorders, and 57 healthy individuals.
The study used three supportive, computational methods to look at the anatomy of the brain, blood flow and also the fiber of the brain.
The international team compared several brain images and measured differences in local densities of brain tissue to measure the amount of gray matter – which declines when Alzheimers began – white matter integrity, cerebral blood flow and obesity.
In patients with depression, a positive association was found between obesity and the amount of gray matter around the right temporoparietal junction. This suggests that obesity may contribute to neural vulnerability in healthy individuals and those with debilitating mental disorders.
Here is the link between stress and alzheimer’s (Source: Getty / Thinkstock)
The study also found that maintaining a healthy weight in depression may help maintain brain structure in the presence of age and disease-related weight loss.
Co-author of the study, Dr Matteo De Marco from the University of Sheffield Institute of Neuroscience, said: “Weight loss is usually one of the first symptoms in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease because people forget to eat or start eating. ‘easy snack- to grab food like biscuits or crisps, instead of more nutritious food.
“We found that maintaining a healthy weight can help maintain brain structure in people who already suffer from Alzheimer’s disease depression. Unlike other diseases such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, people often do not think about the importance of nutrition for brain diseases, but these findings show that it helps to preserving brain structure, ”he said.
According to Professor Hilkka Soininen, co-author of the paper, avoiding obesity is important for brain health, but for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, it is essential to pay attention to maintaining proper and healthy nutrition weight.
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