When people think about obesity and brain health, they often focus on weight or body size. But a new study suggests that the way fat is spread throughout the body may be even more important than how much fat you have overall.
Researchers from The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University in China found that two unusual fat patterns are strongly linked to problems with brain health and thinking ability.
The study was published in the journal Radiology and used detailed MRI scans to study fat stored in different parts of the body. The researchers looked at data from nearly 26,000 people in the UK Biobank, a large health study that collects information about people’s bodies, medical history, and lifestyle.
This allowed them to compare different types of fat storage with brain aging, memory problems, and risks for neurological diseases.
They discovered two fat distribution types that had the strongest connections to brain decline. The first was called “pancreatic predominant” fat. People with this type had very high amounts of fat in their pancreas, sometimes up to 30% fat content.
That’s two to three times more than other people, and as much as six times more than people who are lean. These individuals also tended to have higher overall body weight and BMI. Surprisingly, they didn’t have high liver fat, which is something doctors often check for.
The researchers believe that this type of fat distribution might actually be more dangerous for the brain than fatty liver, even though it’s not widely recognized in medical practice.
The second fat type was called “skinny fat.” People with this pattern had high amounts of fat in many parts of the body—especially around the abdomen—but their BMI wasn’t very high. They didn’t look obviously overweight, which is why the researchers called them “skinny fat.”
Instead of large size, their fat was concentrated in places that may be more harmful, especially if they had more fat compared to muscle. This pattern was more common in men, and it didn’t include much fat in the liver or pancreas.
Both of these fat patterns were linked to a greater loss of gray matter in the brain, faster brain aging, memory decline, and higher chances of developing brain-related diseases. These risks were seen in both men and women, but with some differences between the sexes.
The study shows that the health of your brain depends not just on how much fat you carry, but also where your body stores it. Dr. Kai Liu, one of the lead researchers, explained that MRI scans allowed them to study fat in organs like the pancreas and liver in great detail.
This helped them develop a new way to classify body fat based on actual data, instead of only using general ideas like BMI or appearance.
Doctors often check for fatty liver, but the researchers now suggest that high pancreatic fat might be an even more important warning sign for brain health problems. This finding could change how doctors think about body fat and how they assess the risk of diseases linked to aging.
The researchers focused on brain and cognitive health, but they believe more studies are needed to explore how these fat patterns might affect other areas, such as heart or metabolic health. Still, their work offers a new way to think about fat—not just how much we have, but where it goes.
Understanding these fat patterns could help doctors create more personalized treatment plans and give better advice to patients about staying mentally sharp. As Dr. Liu put it, “Brain health is not just a matter of how much fat you have, but also where it goes.”
If you care about dementia, please read studies about low choline intake linked to higher dementia risk, and how eating nuts can affect your cognitive ability.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that blueberry supplements may prevent cognitive decline, and results showing higher magnesium intake could help benefit brain health.
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