Study: Obese People’ Brains Look 10 Years Older on Scans

Brain scans have revealed that the brains of obese middle-aged individuals look as if they are 10 years older than the brains of slimmer adults of matching ages. Scientists found that for some strange reasons weight-challenged people in the middle-age shed more white matter than people with a normal weight.

Study authors believe that obesity paired with other factors such as high cholesterol may alter the brain’s structure and speed up aging processes in the brain.

A group of researchers at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, found that the brain volume of the overweight and obese are reduced in middle-age at a faster pace than in the people with a normal weight.

White matter is normally lost due to aging processes but such an acceleration was only noticed in patients with severe neuro-degenerative conditions such as dementia. Fortunately, British researchers haven’t found a link between obesity and faster cognitive decline.

The study involved 473 healthy individuals of whom about a half had a body mass index (BMI) higher than 25, i.e. they were either overweight (BMI > 25) or obese (BMI > 30). The average age of the group was 54 with the oldest participant being 87-years-old.

Scientists found that overweight participants lost more white matter than their leaner peers through MRI scans. Brain imaging revealed that obese people had less white matter tissue than people of the same age but with an average weight.

In younger people, the differences were not as blatant as in the middle aged group, researchers noted. This suggests that young people can still have time to change their lifestyle and prevent their brains from prematurely aging.

The research team cannot explain the phenomenon but they have some hypotheses. For instance, obese participants also had a history of high cholesterol, which had been tied by past research to an acceleration in white matter loss as well.

There is also the hypothesis that fat cells may promote inflammatory processes in the brain which could speed up aging processes.

Regardless of the cause, researchers said that their findings are important in countries where population is aging and obesity has reached epidemic proportions. The study may also underline the possibility of obesity to raise the risk of developing other neurodegenerative conditions.

The study results were announced late last month in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Image Source: Vimeo

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.