Three Things Fast Shrinking Brain
Posted on | August 7, 2011 | No Comments
Recent research confirms why you should immediately stop smoking, maintain ideal body weight, and maintain their blood sugar and blood pressure.
According to experts the study, three risk factors, namely smoking, diabetes, and obesity, can cause your brain to shrink rapidly in middle age, even triggering a mental disorder until ten years later.
This is the result of a study of 1352 volunteers who averaged 54 years old in the research titled “Framingham Offspring Study” since 1971. Researchers from the University of California found that smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes associated with changes in blood vessels that could potentially harm the brain.
“We can not cure or treat diseases of aging, but to encourage people to have a healthy body and healthy mind is important,” said Dr. Charles DeCarli, director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
“People should stop smoking, control their blood pressure, prevent diabetes, and lose weight,” added the researcher that his research in the journal Neurology published issue of August 2, 2011.
In this study, volunteers are required to undergo blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes. The measurements also include the body mass and waist circumference volunteers. They then undergo a scan (scan) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain in the intervening 10 years. The first MRI scan done about seven years after the initial examination of risk factors. Participants who had a stroke and dementia at the initial examination no longer involved in the study. From the results of the first and last scan revealed, 19 participants had a stroke and two others developed dementia.
Participants are high tension showed faster decline in the ability of the brain, i.e., test planning and decision making. It is associated with a higher acceleration in terms of damage in the area of the brain blood vessels than those with normal blood pressure.
Those who develop diabetes in middle age more rapid shrinkage in the hippocampus than those without had diabetes. Those who smoke generally lose brain volume and shrinkage in the hippocampus which is faster than nonsmokers, as well as damaged blood vessels in the brain more quickly.
Meanwhile, participants who are obese in middle age tend to be in 25 percent of participants who experienced a rapid decline in executive function tests. Those with waist-hip ratio tended to go higher among participants who experienced a 25 percent decrease in brain volume more quickly.