Are overweight people degraded?

Being overweight is unhealthy – everyone knows that. But that besides heart and blood vessels and can affect the brain power.

According to the U.S. Data and Statistics, every second American citizen is overweight – with serious health consequences. Being overweight increases the risk for many diseases, such as hypertension, heart attack and diabetes. What many do not know: Even the brain is affected by the excess weight. Numerous studies have shown, that overweight people have very lower brain volume and decreased tissue density in the gray matter.

Overweight thereby also increases the risk of dementia. How much obesity effects on the brain, has now a study confirm researchers. The scientists showed that with thicknesses significantly faster decline cognitive skills. For their study, the scientists have evaluate the data of 6,400 adults. The participants, who were aged at baseline 39-63 years, attended 1991-2009 participated in several cognitive tests.

Obese people shows low cardiac output.

In the tests, memory, logical understanding and fluency were tested. In addition, the BMI and other cardiometabolic risk factors have been identified. Of the participants, 38 percent were overweight at baseline and 9 percent were obese. Approximately 60 percent of the obese had a metabolically abnormal status, which means that they appear alongside the preponderance other risk factors such as obesity or diabetes mellitus. Already at the first cognitive test, the obese subjects performed much worse results, than the normal weight. However, there were no difference between metabolically abnormal obese and inconspicuous. Thus, obesity seems to limit the brain power even without other risk factors.

In the following 18 years of study then showed that cognitive performance in metabolically abnormal obese regressed faster, than those who had no additional risk factors. The study was able to show that obese individuals have also independent of other metabolic factors poorer brain function. In addition the cognitive degradation accelerated.