New way to prevent dementia?

▎WuXi AppTec Content Team Editor We know that excess body fat may increase the risk of various chronic diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular disease
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Systemic obesity is also associated with increased inflammatory circulating markers, which may lead to an increased risk of other cardiovascular diseases
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A recent study published in the "JAMA Network Open" (JAMA Network Open) further found that higher body fat percentage and visceral fat volume may be risk factors for cognitive decline in adults and may also be associated with Vascular brain injury
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Screenshot source: JAMA Network Open In this cross-sectional analysis, researchers included 9,189 individuals with an average age of approx.
58-year-old participants who did not have cardiovascular disease when they entered the study
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To explore the relationship between obesity and cognitive function, the researchers performed bioelectrical impedance analysis on 9,166 participants to measure their body fat percentage and 6,773 people with magnetic resonance imaging to assess their vascular brain damage, and their visceral fat volume was measured; participants' cognitive function was assessed using the Digital Sign Substitution Test (DSST) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale; and cardiovascular risk was assessed using the INTERHEART Risk Score
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After the analysis, it was found that body fat percentage and various cognitive function scores were different between men and women: women had higher body fat percentage (35.
6%) than men (25.
1%), but men had higher mean visceral fat volume than women ( 83.
6 mL vs 61.
4 mL)
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Two cognitive function scores, DSST and MoCA, were higher in women, at 75.
7 (DSST) and 27.
1 (MoCA), respectively; in men, 68.
6 and 26.
7, respectively
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These differences remained significant after adjusting for age, race and education level
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Higher body fat percentage and visceral fat volume are associated with cardiovascular risk and changes in vascular brain injury: cardiovascular risk increases with body fat percentage
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The 25% of the population with the highest body fat rate had an INTERHEART risk score of 13.
8, while the 25% of the population with the lowest body fat rate had an INTERHEART risk score of 8.
3 (P<0.
001).
increases with the increase in volume
.

Among them, 8.
6% of the people with the highest body fat rate had vascular brain injury (P=0.
007), and the 25% of the people with the lowest body fat rate had a corresponding proportion of 6.
6%; the 25% of the people with the highest visceral fat had brain injury The injury rate was 7.
2%, and the 25% with the lowest visceral fat was 5.
3% (P=0.
05)
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Cognitive function scores decreased with increasing body fat percentage
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Each standard deviation increase in body fat percentage (9.
2%) or visceral fat volume (36 mL) decreased DSST score by 0.
8 points (P < .
001), but was not associated with MoCA score
.

After accounting for cardiovascular risk factors (such as diabetes and hypertension) and vascular brain injury, the researchers found that the association between total body fat content and visceral fat volume and lower cognitive function scores (attributable risk 20.
5%)
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The study's lead author, Professor Sonia S.
Anand, from the McMaster University School of Medicine, said: "The findings suggest that after adjusting for the effect of relevant risk factors, we found that the effect of increased body fat percentage remained, Preventing or reducing excess body fat may help preserve cognitive function
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" Study author Eric Smith, associate professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Calgary, said: "Maintaining cognitive function is protective against Alzheimer's disease.
One of the best ways
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Maintaining a healthy weight and body fat percentage through good nutrition and physical activity may be one of the ways to prevent dementia
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"Related reading Improved air quality reduces dementia risk in Chinese population! Peking University experts interpret the latest research on the cover of "The Lancet-Aging Health" Professor Wang Huali from the Sixth Hospital of Peking University: Nearly 1/5 of people ≥ 65 years old have mild cognitive impairment.
How to do "early diagnosis and early wisdom"? New discovery by Peking University team: improving depression may slow cognitive decline | Researcher Xie Wuxiang commented that vision is related to dementia? New study from JAMA sub-journal: 30% lower risk after cataract surgery! BMJ 100,000 people study: work "burns the brain", will it not be easy to get dementia in the future? Reference [1] Anand, SS, et al.
(2022).
Evaluation of Adiposity and Cognitive Function in Adults.
JAMA Network Open, doi:10.
1001/jamanetworkopen.
2021.
46324[2] Greater body fat a risk factor for reduced thinking and memory ability.
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