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Obesity and overweight linked to poor mental function

11/Oct/2006: French researchers have found that obese or overweight middle-aged people, fare poorly on memory, attention and learning ability tests, compared to their slimmer peers.

The findings of this study indicates that obesity or overweight in middle- age, increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s later in life. The study appears in the journal ‘Neurology’.

Researchers involved in this study contemplate that higher rates of cardiovascular diseases or diabetes in obese or overweight people could affect their mental function. They also feel that substances produced by the fat cells, like the hormone leptin, could directly affect the brain and its functions.

Dr. Maxime Cournot, of Toulouse University Hospital in France and the lead author of this study, said that the results of this study suggests that the risk of dementia is much higher in those persons, who are obese or overweight in their middle-age.

2,223 healthy French adults between the ages of 32 and 62 in 1996 participated in this study. At that time, researchers administered a series of standard cognitive tests on the participants, to assess their memory, attention and learning abilities. Five years later, the participants underwent similar tests to assess their cognitive abilities.

The study found that people with a high body mass index (BMI) earned lower scores than those with a lower BMI. People with high BMI also showed a higher cognitive decline between the two test periods. Other factors like age, education and general health had much less influence on the mental functions when compared to overweight or obesity.

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