health
Certain health risk factors could lead to brain damage later in life
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 8, 2011
Middle-aged patients who smoke, are overweight or have hypertension or diabetes may be prone to cognitive problems 10 years later, says an Aug. 2 study in Neurology (link).
Researchers studied brain structure changes in 1,352 participants of the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. Those with hypertension at middle age later developed small areas of vascular brain damage at a faster rate than those with normal blood pressure. Smokers and diabetes patients had more rapid loss of volume in the brain's temporal horn.
Midlife smoking also was linked to a significant decrease in total brain volume. Obese patients had increased risk of changes in executive function.
"Our findings provide evidence that identifying these risk factors early in people of middle age could be useful in screening people for at-risk dementia and encouraging people to make changes to their lifestyle before it's too late," said Charles DeCarli, MD, study co-author and professor at the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/08/08/hlbf0808.htm.
