Let’s start with some basics. Body mass index (BMI) is a number that tells us about the weight of a person relative to their height. It’s like a quick measure of whether a person’s weight is healthy or not.
You can calculate BMI using a simple formula: it’s the person’s weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared (kg/m²).
Weighing the Mind
Scientists from the prestigious Karolinska Institutet in Sweden recently did a study about BMI. And guess what? They found a fascinating link between BMI and brain health.
In their study, they analyzed the BMI trends of 1,390 adults who were around 78 years old on average, and about three-quarters of them were women.
The scientists wanted to see if there were any changes in these people’s BMI before they were diagnosed with a condition called mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
A Dip Before the Slip
MCI is like a warning sign that a person’s brain health might be declining, and they might develop dementia.
In their study, the researchers found that a person’s BMI started to drop approximately seven years before they were diagnosed with MCI. In fact, the drop was much lower compared to those whose cognition remained intact.
Interestingly, once people were diagnosed with MCI, it didn’t matter whether they developed dementia later or not—the rate of BMI decline remained pretty similar.
The Brain-Weight Connection
The researchers also had autopsy data of 358 people from the study. They found that those with a high burden of Alzheimer’s disease or vascular pathology (essentially, disease in the brain’s blood vessels) had a faster BMI decline.
This suggests that these brain diseases might be linked to a decrease in BMI before MCI is diagnosed.
Scientists believe that future imaging studies, like positron emission tomography (PET scans), can help us understand how changes in BMI and brain diseases are connected over time.
What’s Next?
This research, conducted by Jie Guo and team, was published in JAMA Psychiatry, and it’s a big step forward. It’s giving us a new understanding of how our weight connects to our brain health.
This study is a call to all of us: we need to pay attention to our weight, not just for our physical health but for our brain health too. Remember, a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. So, let’s aim for both!
If you care about brain health, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and Omega-3 fats and carotenoid supplements could improve memory.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce dementia risk, and higher magnesium intake could help benefit brain health.
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