They calculated the amazing aging of your brain with just a few extra pounds of weight.

Exists or does not exist healthy obesity? This is a question that occasionally causes controversy on social media. It is difficult to answer, as each case is individual. The only reality is that obesity can be caused by many reasons, and criticizing or even blaming it by disguising the strategy health care Is this a bad idea? Putting that aside, a group of Chinese scientists believe that obesity may not be healthy because it affects the brain.

They came to this conclusion after conducting a study involving more than 1,000 people of different ages, who monitored their evolution. for 16 yearsThe goal was to analyze them body mass index (BMI) and study your brain using neuroimaging techniques.

They thus confirmed that a body mass index close to what is considered obese in China entails changes in the brain equivalent to, on average, 12 years of aging. These results are very similar to those of another study published a few months ago in Lancet. But what does all this mean?

Obesity in the Brain

The three main changes these scientists saw in their study were brain shrinkageincrease in quantity white matter lesions And microstructural integrity abnormal. All of these are parameters associated with aging.

In particular, they concluded that people under 45 years of age with a body mass index of more 26.2 These changes can be equated to an average age of 12 years. In China, a BMI above 28 is considered obese, while in the West the limit is usually 30. So in both cases it will be just a question of overweight. It should be noted that these are only approximate figures; since, for example, there is no difference between muscle and visceral massEither way, these scientists’ conclusion is that young people need to stay below this BMI to age healthy.

In recent years, cases dementia in the elderly in China have increased almost in parallel with the rise in obesity among young people, so these scientists believe the correlation is clear.

Only in Asia

It is important to remember that all 1,074 people who took part in this study were Chinese. Similarly, in the one published a few months ago, all the volunteers were Asian. In that case, it was concluded that each 0.27 kg visceral mass represent cognitive impairments equivalent to 0.7 years of aging. This is interesting data, but all from one continent.

For this reason, its results cannot be extrapolated to the rest of the world. In these countries, there may be some genetic or lifestyle factor that reinforces the relationship between obesity and obesity. cognitive impairmentIs it true that staying below these BMI limits is healthier? Logically, yes.

But there may also be people with a normal BMI who are in much worse health than obese people. Cognitive impairment and dementia are completely multifactorial. They are influenced by many factors, both genetic and environmental, so obesity will be another one of them. It will always be important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and the best health, both physical and mental. Unfortunately, sometimes a healthy lifestyle is not enough to avoid obesity, but it is the best way to start taking care of yourself. As for this study, the results are very interesting, so it would be very useful if similar studies were carried out in other places in the world. This way, we will have more data to consider about what kind of lifestyle we should try to lead.