Obesity Accelerates Cognitive Decline

A study of more than 6,000 people has revealed that those with “metabolic abnormalities” may experience a faster decline in their cognitive skills. Archana Singh-Manoux, PhD, of INSERM, the French research institute in Paris and University College London in England, and colleagues gathered information on body mass index (BMI) and metabolic risk factors from 6,410 people with an average age of 50. Participants were defined as having metabolic abnormality if they had two or more of the following risk factors: high blood pressure or taking medication for it; low HDL-cholesterol; high blood sugar or taking diabetes medication; high triglycerides; or taking medication to lower cholesterol. Participants also took tests on memory and other cognitive skills at the start of the study and three times over the course of the next 10 years. Results showed that participants who were both obese and metabolically abnormal experienced a 22.5% faster decline in their cognitive test scores than those who were of normal weight without metabolic abnormalities. Metabolically normal obese individuals also experienced a more rapid decline than their non-obese and metabolically normal peers. Dr Singh-Manoux concluded:”More research is needed to look at the effects of genetic factors and also to take into account how long people have been obese and how long they have had these metabolic risk factors and also to look at cognitive test scores spanning adulthood to give us a better understanding of the link between obesity and cognitive function, such as thinking, reasoning and memory.