Fat In Abdominal Organs Connected With Cognitive Decline in Men at High Risk of Alzheimer’s
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“We think of dementia and cognitive decline with old age, but we’re showing that already in midlife there is a relationship between such a risk factor as abdominal organ fat and cognitive function and brain volumes,” says study author Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD, director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at Rutgers Brain Health Institute in New Jersey.
Men in the Study Had More Pancreatic Fat Than Women
For the analysis, Dr. Beeri and her collaborators selected 204 adults who are the offspring of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Participants ranged in age from 40 to 65, and 60 percent were women.
Subjects underwent abdominal magnetic resonance imaging to measure fat in the pancreas, liver, and abdomen and to assess brain volumes. To evaluate cognitive function, participants completed a battery of tests, including ones related to memory, language, and visual attention.
Specifically, the results highlighted that greater pancreatic fat was associated with lower cognition and brain volume in middle-aged males at high Alzheimer’s risk — but not females. This suggests a potential sex-specific link between distinct abdominal fat and brain health, according to Beeri.
“We don’t know why the association was stronger in men, but they had higher levels of pancreatic fat than women,” she says.
“Theoretically, a man’s pancreas may be less functional and the brain might be more affected,” speculates Beeri, emphasizing that the results show a relationship but do not prove that pancreatic fat is a cause of problems with memory and thinking.
Yuko Hara, PhD, director of Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), points out that too much fat in the pancreas can lead to decreased secretion of insulin, which plays an important role in directing glucose from the blood into cells that need it for energy, including neurons in the brain.
“Too much pancreatic fat can also lead to insulin resistance, which can result in type 2 diabetes,” says Dr. Hara, who was not involved in the study. “Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for dementia. Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease share several characteristics, such as impaired insulin signaling and oxidative stress.”
BMI May Not Be the Best Way to Assess Obesity-Related Cognitive Risk
Although body mass index (BMI) has been the typical way to establish obesity, this study challenges the conventional use of BMI as the primary measure for assessing obesity-related cognitive risks.
The results suggest that measuring fat percentage in specific organs or tissues may be a better way of determining a person’s likelihood of developing dementia.
Study Results Limited to Offspring of People With Alzheimer’s
Because the people in the study were all middle-aged offspring of people living with Alzheimer’s, Heather Snyder, PhD, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association, stresses that the results do not represent middle-aged adults as a whole.
“Future studies are needed to replicate and confirm these results with larger and more representative study groups,” says Dr. Snyder, who was not involved in the investigation.
Anyone Can Take Action to Promote Brain Health
While measuring abdominal organ fat percentage is not part of routine clinical care, it is clear that addressing metabolic health risk factors (such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and physical inactivity) is important for brain health and dementia prevention, according to Hara.
“There are many ways to improve metabolic health by increasing physical activity, managing chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and eating a brain-healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet,” she says.
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