Excessive Body Fat Can Increase the Risk of Dementia

AHA Publisher — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:00:04 +0000

University of South Australia via News-Medical – It’s the global epidemic that affects two in every five adults, but as obesity continues to expand waistlines worldwide, researchers at the University of South Australia are warning that harmful body fat can also increase the risk of dementia and stroke. Examining grey brain matter of about 28,000 people, the world first research showed that increased body fat incrementally leads to increased atrophy of grey matter in the brain and consequently higher risk of declining brain health. Grey matter is an essential part of the brain responsible for execution control, muscular and sensory activity as well as learning, attention, and memory. Obesity is a major issue worldwide, with numbers nearly tripling since 1975. Data from the World Health Organization shows that more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight, with 650 million being obese. More than 340 million children (aged 5-19) are overweight or obese, with 39 million children under the age of five also falling into this category. Lead researcher, UniSA’s Dr Anwar Mulugeta, says the findings add to the growing issues associated with being overweight or obese. “Obesity is a genetically complex condition characterized by the excessive body fat.” Dr Anwar Mulugeta, Lead Researcher, UniSA “Generally, the three obesity subtypes have a characteristic of higher body mass index, yet, each type varies in terms of body fat and visceral fat distribution, with a different risk of cardiometabolic diseases. “We found that people with higher levels of obesity especially those with metabolically unfavorable and neutral adiposity subtypes had much lower levels of grey brain matter, indicating that these people may have compromised brain function which needed further investigation. “However, we did not find conclusive evidence to link a specific obesity subtype with dementia or stroke. Instead, our study suggests the possible role of inflammation and metabolic abnormalities and how they can contribute to obesity and grey matter volume reduction.” The study used Mendelian randomization to examine the genetic data of up to 336,000 individual records in the UK Biobank, with self-reported information and linked hospital and death register records to connect dementia and stoke. It found that middle to elderly age groups (37-73) grey brain matter decreased by 0.3 per cent for every extra 1 kg/m2, which is equivalent of an extra 3 kg of weight for person of average height individuals, (173 cm) Senior investigator, Professor Elina Hyppönen, Director of UniSA’s Australian Centre for Precision Health based at SAHMRI, says maintaining a healthy weight is important for general public health. “It is increasingly appreciated that obesity is a complex condition, and that especially excess fat which is located around the internal organs have particularly harmful effects on health,” Professor Hyppönen says. “Here, we used the individuals’ genetic and metabolic profiles to confirm different types of obesity. In practice, our findings very much support the need to look at the type of obesity when assessing the type of likely health impact. “Even in a relatively normal weight individual, excess weight around the abdominal area may be a cause of concern.” “Commonly linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and chronic inflammation (a marker of dementia), obesity currently costs Australia’s economy about $8.6 billion dollars each year. “While the disease burden of obesity has increased over the past five decades, the complex nature of the disease means that not all obese individuals are metabolically unhealthy, which makes it difficult to pinpoint who is at risk of associated diseases, and who is not. “Certainly, being overweight generally increases your risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and low-grade inflammation, but understanding the level of risk is important to better direct supports. “In this study, we investigated the causal relationships of individuals within three metabolically different obesity types – unfavorable, neutral and favorable – to establish whether specific weight groups were more at risk than others.

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Cellular Aging is Linked to Structural Changes in the Brain

AHA Publisher — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 07:00:38 +0000

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences via EurekAlert – One key to staying younger longer therefore seems to be related to the question: How do we slow down, stop, or even reverse the shortening of telomeres? Genetics and unhealthy lifestyle are important contributors to telomere shortening, along with psychological stress. Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that become shorter with each cell division. If they become so short that the genes they protect could be damaged, the cell stops dividing and renewing. Consequently, the cell is increasingly unable to perform its functions. This mechanism is one of the ways in which we age. Telomere length is therefore regarded as a marker for the biological age of a person — in contrast to their chronological age. For two people of the same chronological age, the person with shorter telomeres has an increased risk of developing age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s or cancer, and even a shorter life expectancy. Telomere Lengthening One key to staying younger longer therefore seems to be related to the question: How do we slow down, stop, or even reverse the shortening of telomeres? Genetics and unhealthy lifestyle are important contributors to telomere shortening, along with psychological stress. Based on this knowledge, researchers have examined how much lifestyle can influence telomere length. Recent studies suggest that telomeres can change faster than previously thought, possibly taking just one to six months of mental or physical training to elongate. The exciting premise is that telomere lengthening may represent a reversal of biological aging processes. However, it remains unclear if telomere elongation actually reflects any improvement in a person’s overall health and aging trajectory. “To explore whether a short-term change in telomere length, after only a few months, might actually be associated with changes in a person’s biological age, we linked it to another biomarker of aging and health: brain structure,” explains Lara Puhlmann, now a member of the Research Group ‘Social Stress and Family Health’ led by Veronika Engert at the Leipzig Max Planck Institute. The project had been initiated by Tania Singer as part of the ReSource Project. Participants of the researchers’ study underwent four MRI examinations, each spaced three months apart, and provided blood samples on the same dates. Using the DNA of leukocytes from the blood, the scientists were able to determine telomere length using a polymerase chain reaction. The MRI scans were used to calculate the thickness of the cerebral cortex of each participant. This outer layer of grey matter becomes thinner with age. It is also known that some neurological and age-related diseases are associated with faster cortical thinning in certain brain regions. Fast Changes in Biological Aging The result: “Across systems, our biological aging appears to change more quickly than we thought. Indices of aging can vary together significantly in just three months,” says Puhlmann. If the telomeres changed in length, this was associated with structural changes in the brain. In a period when participants’ telomeres lengthened during the study, it was also more likely that their cortex had thickened at the same time. On the other hand, telomere shortening was associated with reductions of grey matter. This association occurred specifically in a brain region called the precuneus, which is a central metabolic and connectional hub. The above results suggest that even short-term changes in telomere length over just three months might reflect general fluctuations in the body’s health- and aging status. Many other questions, however, remain open. “We do not know, for example, which biological mechanism underlies the short-term changes in telomere length”, explains the scientist, “or whether the short-term changes really have a longer-term effect on health.” Mental Training At the same time, the team of researchers investigated whether telomere length could be altered by nine months of mindfulness- and empathy-based mental training, and whether such systematic change in telomere length would also be reflected in cortical thickening or thinning. Previous data from the ReSource Project, which was supported by the European Research Council (ERC), had already shown that certain regions of the cortex can be thickened by training, depending on the respective mental training contents of three distinct modules, each lasting for three months. The physiological stress response could also be reduced by mental training with social aspects. In contrast to their earlier work and previous findings from other groups, the team did not find any training effects on telomeres. Future studies will need to continue to address the question of which measures or behaviors most effectively stop or even reverse telomere shortening, and the biological aging process. To read the original article click here.

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Excessive Body Fat Can Increase the Risk of Dementia

Cellular Aging is Linked to Structural Changes in the Brain