Preventing obesity in early life may reduce Alzheimer damage

The study, conducted by the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, analyzed the relationship between obesity and mental health across varying stages of cognition. By using Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist measurements, the study investigated whether brain changes have any link to these two indicators of obesity.

In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, people typically exhibit degraded brain structures, with decreased levels of gray matter volume, white matter integrity, and blood flow.

These are central to building neural connections, and their degradation signals a loss of important brain functions, as doctors often observe in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

However, the new study found that people with mild Alzheimer’s disease who maintained healthy weights may have retained some of these brain structures, as opposed to the cognitively healthy participants with obesity, who exhibited potentially degenerating brain structures.

When observing the indicators of obesity and brain structures, the researchers found the most notable associations between BMI and gray matter volume.

The higher the BMI — but still contained within the healthy range — of the individual, the higher the levels of gray matter volume present in the brain.

A potential explanation for this result is that, even in progressed stages of dementia, healthy levels of body fat provide the brain with the adequate resources to mitigate brain damage.