It turns out that a big belly ages your brain 10 years.
Extra Fat Can Make Your Brain Suffer: A new study published in Neurobiology of Aging suggests that overweight people show more deterioration in the brain , similar to aging, than thin people.
After analyzing images of 527 adults, the researchers found that overweight people – those with a body mass index greater than 25 – had lower volumes of white matter in their brains than people with BMI less than 25.
White matter is the tissue that connects different areas of the brain to each other and enables communication between neural regions. This helps you with everything from memory to even thinking faster.
This tissue naturally shrinks with aging, but this process seems to accelerate when you are overweight or obese, says Dr. Lisa Ronan, principal investigator at the University of Cambridge, UK.
In fact, the overweight subjects had brains similar to healthy people 10 years older.
One possible explanation: Excess fat tissue can produce inflammatory proteins, called cytokines, which can harm your brain , Ronan explains.
The researchers found no difference in cognitive functions between overweight and thin people in this study, but previous research has linked the extra pounds with an increased risk of dementia.
Also, if the researchers had examined the participants’ cognitive functions for some time – rather than just that time – they may have found cognitive changes, Ronan says.
Either way, you lose nothing by keeping your weight under control: Other research suggests that returning to a normal weight can help you have a healthy brain .