Smoking, diabetes and being overweight can all cause brain shrinkage, scientists …
Smoking, diabetes and excess weight in middle age can all cause the brain to shrink, research has shown.
The effects may lead to impaired thinking up to a decade later, according to US scientists.
Smoking and high blood pressure also led to increases in "white matter hyperintensities", small lesions or areas of brain damage, they said.
"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 study author Charles DeCarli, from the University of California at Davis.
The study involved 1,352 dementia-free individuals with an average age of 54 who were given magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans over a 10-year period. All were participants in the Framingham Offspring Study, a major US investigation of heart disease risk factors.
People with high blood pressure were found to develop white matter hyperintensities faster than those with normal pressure readings. They also had a more rapid worsening of scores on tests of planning and decision-making.
Those with diabetes in middle age lost brain volume in the hippocampus, a brain region vital to memory, at a faster rate than those without diabetes. Smokers lost brain volume overall and were also likely to suffer a rapid increase in vascular brain lesions.
Obese participants were more likely to be in the top 25% of people with a faster rate of decline in scores for tests of planning and decision making.
"These factors appeared to cause the brain to lose volume, to develop lesions secondary to presumed vascular (blood vessel) injury, and also appeared to affect its ability to plan and make decisions as quickly 10 years later," said Dr DeCarli.
The findings were published in the journal Neurology.
The effects may lead to impaired thinking up to a decade later, according to US scientists.
Smoking and high blood pressure also led to increases in "white matter hyperintensities", small lesions or areas of brain damage, they said.
"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 study author Charles DeCarli, from the University of California at Davis.
The study involved 1,352 dementia-free individuals with an average age of 54 who were given magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans over a 10-year period. All were participants in the Framingham Offspring Study, a major US investigation of heart disease risk factors.
People with high blood pressure were found to develop white matter hyperintensities faster than those with normal pressure readings. They also had a more rapid worsening of scores on tests of planning and decision-making.
Those with diabetes in middle age lost brain volume in the hippocampus, a brain region vital to memory, at a faster rate than those without diabetes. Smokers lost brain volume overall and were also likely to suffer a rapid increase in vascular brain lesions.
Obese participants were more likely to be in the top 25% of people with a faster rate of decline in scores for tests of planning and decision making.
"These factors appeared to cause the brain to lose volume, to develop lesions secondary to presumed vascular (blood vessel) injury, and also appeared to affect its ability to plan and make decisions as quickly 10 years later," said Dr DeCarli.
The findings were published in the journal Neurology.
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