image: Lead author Sonia Anand is a professor of medicine of McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a vascular medicine specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). view more
Credit: McMaster University
Hamilton, ON (February 1, 2022) – A new study has found that greater body fat is a risk factor for reduced cognitive function, such as processing speed, in adults.
Even when the researchers took cardiovascular risk factors (such as diabetes or high blood pressure) or vascular brain injury into account, the association between body fat and lower cognitive scores remained. This suggests other not yet confirmed pathways that linked excess body fat to reduced cognitive function.
In the study, 9,166 participants were measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis to assess their total body fat.
As well, 6,733 of the participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure abdominal fat packed around the organs known as visceral fat, and the MRI also assessed vascular brain injury - areas in the brain affected by reduced blood flow to the brain.
The results were published today in JAMA Network Open.
“Our results suggest that strategies to prevent or reduce having too much body fat may preserve cognitive function,” said lead author Sonia Anand, a professor of medicine of McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a vascular medicine specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). She is also a senior scientist of the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster and HHS.
She added that “the effect of increased body fat persisted even after adjusting for its effect on increasing cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as vascular brain injury, which should prompt researchers to investigate which other pathways may link excess fat to reduced cognitive function.”
Co-author Eric Smith, a neurologist, scientist and an associate professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Calgary, said that “preserving cognitive function is one of the best ways to prevent dementia in old age. This study suggests that one of the ways that good nutrition and physical activity prevent dementia may be by maintaining healthy weight and body fat percentage.”
Smith is head of the brain core lab for the two population cohorts used for this new analysis– the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM) and PURE Mind- a sub-study of the large, international Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study.
The participants were in the age range of 30 to 75 with an average age of about 58. Just over 56% were women; they all lived in either Canada or Poland. The majority were White European origin, with about 16% other ethnic backgrounds. Individuals with known cardiovascular disease were excluded.
The CAHHM study was funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The PURE-Mind study was funded from multiple sources including the Population Health Research Institute, CIHR, and Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Journal
JAMA Network Open
Method of Research
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Evaluation of Adiposity and Cognitive Function in Adults
Article Publication Date
1-Feb-2022
COI Statement
Dr Anand reported receiving grants from Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation grant during the conduct of the study and serving as the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Ethnicity and Cardiovascular Disease and as the Michael G Degroote Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Population Helath Research, and receiving grants from Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and receiving personal fees from Bayer outside the submitted work. Dr Friedrich reported receiving personal fees from Circle CVI Inc for serving as a board member and adviser and being a shareholder outside the submitted work. Dr Després reported receiving grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research outside the submitted work. Dr de Souza reported receiving grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research during the conduct of the study; receiving grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Population Health Research Institute, and Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation outside the submitted work; and serving as a member of the Nutrition Science Advisory Committee to Health Canada (Government of Canada), a co-opted member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition Subgroup on the Framework for the Evaluation of Evidence (Public Health England), and as an independent director of the Helderleigh Foundation (Canada). Dr Dummer reported receiving grants from Canadian Partnership Against Cancer during the conduct of the study. Dr Parraga reported receiving grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canadian Alliance Study during the conduct of the study and grants from Astra Zeneca and Novartis and personal fees from Astra Zeneca and Polarean outside the submitted work. Dr Lear reported receiving grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and grants from Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research during the conduct of the study and personal fees from Curatio Inc outside the submitted work. Dr Szczesniak reported receiving grants from the National Science Centre during the conduct of the study. Dr Tardif reported receiving grants from Amarin, Ceapro, Esperion, Ionis, Novartis, Pfizer, RegenXBio, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and DalCor Pharmaceuticals, receiving personal fees from AstraZeneca, HLS Pharmaceuticals, Pendopharm, and DalCor Pharmaceuticals, and having a minor equity interest in DalCor Pharmaceuticals Minor outside the submitted work. In addition, Dr Tardif had a patent for Pharmacogenomics-Guided CETP Inhibition issued by DalCor Pharmaceuticals, a patent for Use of Colchicine After Myocardial Infarction pending, and a patent for Genetic Determinants of Response to Colchicine pending. Dr Vena reported receiving grants from Alberta Health, Alberta Cancer Foundation and Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (provides program funding for Alberta’s Tomorrow Project) during the conduct of the study. Dr Zatonska reported receiving grants from the National Science Center outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.