As well as being bad for your general health, it seems that being overweight is also bad for your brain – if you are male. Results of a pioneering study of the intellectual capabilities of obese people have revealed that being morbidly overweight dramatically reduces intelligence in men. For the study, participants were given a battery of cognitive function tests to test their powers of logic, verbal fluency, and recall. Results showed that men with a BMI of more than 30 scored as much as 23% lower than non-obese men, even after taking into account factors such as educational level, occupation, and blood pressure. Study leader, Professor Merrill Elias of the University of Boston, suspects that excess fat may affect blood circulation in the brain, thus increasing the risk of mini-strokes and haemorrhages that could cause a decline in mental functioning. He says that previous research suggests that losing weight can prevent further cognitive decline but will not restore lost brainpower. As for why excess weight should affect men in this way but not women, Elias suspects that it is due to the differences in excess fat distribution.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.telegraph.co.uk on the 2nd March 2003
