A study published in the August 21, 2012 issue of Neurology reported on the cognitive changes occurring over a 10 year period for the 6404 participants (67% men) in the Whitehall II Study ongoing since 1985. Obesity is associated with a more rapid decline with age. These researchers wanted to see if metabolical function affected the outcomes. They noted the findings associated with metabolic syndrome: blood pressure, glucose levels, triglyceride levels, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. They did not measure other markers of inflammation such as hsCRP, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. They are did not take exercise into consideration. However, we know that exercise reduces one's risk for metabolic syndrome greatly. Overall they found that the decline in cognitive function was less so for metabolically normal individuals, regardless of weight. However, the metabolically normal but obese group did decline a bit more than the normal weight individuals. In the metabolically abnormal group, for everyone the decline was more marked, but especially so in the obese individuals.
The take-home message here is that even metabolically normal obese people would be well-served by losing some weight to reduce their risk of cognitive decline.
One problem I have with this study is that individuals who were metabolically normal, but only through the use of drugs, were considered normal. The drugs do not get to the underlying problems, especially nutritional and exercise problems. So the findings might have been more dramatic if the drugged people were not included in the normal group.
Please visit my website at www.drjessicaseaton.com
No comments:
Post a Comment