Is Obesity Tied with Memory Loss?
By: Lauren Rozanski
According to the article “Rise in Weight Linked to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults” by Traci Watson; being over weight may be tied to the shrinking of the hippocampus. There was a study done that observed people in their 60s and followed them throughout their life. Among these participants, there were both people of a healthy weight and those that would be considered to be obese. What they discovered was that in the hippocampus in the obese participants was shrinking by two percent each year. Healthy weight participant’s hippocampus also shrank every year, but only half as much as the obese participants.
This is important because the hippocampus is known to be associated with memory, especially long-term memory. To give a better idea, the rate in which the obese participants’ hippocampus is shrinking is very similar to the are of those with Alzheimer’s disease. In the beginning of the study 400 people in their sixty’s had their brain looked at using an MRI machine. Even in the beginning of the study it was already apparent that obese participants even had smaller hippocampus’ than those who were considered somewhat overweight.
This is something that needs to be looked at and taken very seriously in the United Stated considering how many obese people we have in our population. Its scary to think that about one third of Americans are obese, if not more. Exercising and taking care of this problem would have so many health benefits. It would not only help with the many known diseases that we know are tied with obesity, but would even help keep a person’s brain very healthy and active as well. If we were to address this obesity problem at a young age, the benefits that it would have on a person's life would be endless.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141118-obesity-brain-memory-alzheimers-aging-health-science-ngfood/
I didn't even know that obesity and memory could be connected with one another! It's scary how the actions we choose to take in the present can affect us in the future greatly. The foods that we choose today lead us to decide the next meal and so on and so forth. I feel that because exercise is recommended to everyone from such a young age, we often take that advice in one ear and let it out with the other. My grandpa is always telling me to stay healthy because it'll benefit me a lot when I grow up. Who knew that memory would be one of the benefits! Thank you for a thought provoking article!
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This article hit home for me since my mom has been considered obese for over a decade now. I understood the risks associated with excess weight, especially in regards to the cardiovascular system, but I never would have thought that it would also create a neurodegenerative risk. But the fact that I am more moved by the degradation of the brain compared to the body shows just how much more we value our mental health over our physical health. Modern medicine has made heart attacks much less detrimental, therefore making an unhealthy lifestyle less daunting. Conversely, doctors are not able to counteract dementia, eliciting a much stronger emotional response to this scientific finding. Hopefully continued research will deter people, including my mom, from continuing a dangerous lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting connection between obesity and size of the hippocampus. There is no doubt that obesity causes many diseases as seen here in which obesity causes the hippocampus to shrink. However, I wonder if the reverse effect exists. That is, could people with naturally smaller hippocampi lead to have a higher risk of obesity? Or is the correlation only one sided in which obesity causes the hippocampus to shrink, but a smaller hippocampus does not cause obesity?
ReplyDeleteWhile I knew obesity had a more obvious profound affect on the body, it had never occurred to me that there would be hippocampal shrinkage. Being overweight did not seem like it would have a connection with anything neural. Now we know that being over weight has more detrimental effects than what we can see. Hopefully this is something that can be used to encourage a healthy lifestyle in order to avoid hippocampal shrinking.
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