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Your Weight and Help Protect Your Brain
Staying healthy and
maintaining a normal weight may be good not only for your body but also for
your brain. A 10-year study of 6,401 British civil servants, initially ages 39
to 63, reports an association between being overweight or obese and impaired cognitive
function. Combined with other health issues ("metabolic
abnormalities") such as diabetes or high cholesterol, extra weight also
increased the odds of mental decline over time.
"I think that
it’s important to point out that metabolic abnormality was predictive of poorer
cognitive performance regardless of BMI,” says Tammy Scott, PhD, a scientist at
Tufts’ HNRCA Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory. “One of the most important
findings of this study, though, was that amongst metabolically healthy
individuals, higher BMI was associated with worse cognitive function.
Furthermore, in the metabolically unhealthy group, higher BMI was associated
with greater cognitive decline over a 10-year period. This trend over time was
not seen in the metabolically healthy group."
Those associations,
Scott says, underline the importance of maintaining a healthy weight—not only
for your physical health but, apparently, for a healthy brain as well. Like
obesity and overweight, moreover, most of the metabolic abnormalities also
associated with poorer cognitive performance can be combated with healthy
eating and lifestyle.
Cocoa
Flavanols
Could Be Good for Your Brain
As the weather cools,
a cup of hot cocoa might hit the spot—and could boost your brainpower. A new
clinical trial supported by chocolate-maker Mars reports that older adults with
mild cognitive impairment improved scores on some mental tests when they consumed
more cocoa flavanols, the antioxidant
compounds credited with dark chocolate’s heart-health benefits.
“For the first time,
regular cocoa flavanol consumption has been
shown to positively affect cognitive function in older adults with early memory
decline, "commented study author Giovambattista Desideri, PhD, of the
University of L’Aquila in Italy. “Importantly, the improvements in cognitive
function were seen over a relatively short period of time, and, while further
research is required to confirm and expand on these findings, this provides
encouraging evidence that regular consumption of cocoa flavanols might be effective
in improving cognitive function in elderly subjects with mild cognitive
impairment.”
Over eight weeks,
researchers tested three levels of cocoa flavanols in
dairy-based beverages among 90 elderly patients with mild impairment. Those
randomly assigned to the high (990 milligrams of flavanols daily) and intermediate (520
milligrams) cocoa groups showed
significantly greater improvement
than those in the low (45
milligrams) group on “trail-making”
tests, verbal fluency and composite
cognition. Scores on the standard Mini
Mental State Examination did not
change significantly,
however. “The differences between the
intervention groups look to be clinically
significant,” says Tammy Scott, PhD, a
scientist at Tufts’ HNRCA
Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory.
“Keep in mind, while the
participants had mild cognitive impairment, they
were assessing executive
function/processing speed, not memory. But the
results look pretty impressive for a
dietary intervention.
