Poor metabolic health is linked to poor brain function. Fitness and health 12:45 | June 21, 2024

Poor metabolic health, also known as “metabolic syndrome,” includes three or more of the following: large waist circumference, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the “good” cholesterol). One in every four adults in the world suffers from this syndrome.

Previous studies have shown that poor metabolism may increase the risk of developing dementia. But it wasn’t clear whether this was associated with worsening brain health even in people without dementia.

For the new study, researchers analyzed results from 37,395 UK Biobank participants who did not have dementia. Of these, 7,945 people had poor metabolic health when they participated in the study.

It turns out that poor metabolic health is associated with smaller brain volume and less gray matter, which is responsible for processing information in the brain; increased white matter activity (an indicator of vascular damage in the brain previously associated with dementia); memory problems (the volume of the hippocampus decreased, the results of cognitive tests related to working memory (a type of short-term memory) and verbal declarative memory (the ability to recall and repeat information) worsened.

In addition, people with poor metabolic health performed worse on cognitive tests such as processing speed, verbal and numerical reasoning (the ability to understand and use words and numbers), and nonverbal reasoning (the ability to understand information that is not represented by words or numbers). and tests of executive functions (related to planning and problem solving).

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