In a new study, researchers found that older people who gain extra weight in their 60s are more likely to have brain thinning years later.
They found having a bigger waistline and a high body mass index (BMI) in the 60s may be linked with greater signs of brain aging.
Having a thinner brain has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The research was conducted by a team from the University of Miami.
In the study, the team examined 1,289 people with an average age of 64. Participants’ BMI and waist circumference were measured at the beginning of the study.
An average of six years later, participants had MRI brain scans to measure the thickness of the cortex area of the brain, overall brain volume, and other factors.
The normal weight group had an average waist circumference of 33 inches. The overweight group had an average of 36 inches, and the obese group had an average of 41 inches.
The researchers found having a higher BMI was linked to having a thinner cortex.
In overweight people, every unit increase in BMI was linked to a 0.098 millimeter (mm) thinner cortex and in obese people with a 0.207 mm thinner cortex.
Having a bigger waist was also linked to a thinner cortex.
The team says that people with bigger waists and higher BMI were more likely to have thinning in the cortex area of the brain.
This implies that obesity is linked to the reduced gray matter of the brain. Being overweight or obese may accelerate aging in the brain by at least a decade.
These links were especially strong in those who were younger than 65, which adds weight to the theory that having poor health in mid-life may increase the risk for brain aging and problems with memory and thinking skills in later life.
The results also suggest that by losing weight, people may be able to delay brain aging and potentially prevent the memory and thinking problems that can come along with aging.
Future work needs to test this.
One author of the study is Tatjana Rundek, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The study is published in Neurology.
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