The title question may be a bit of a stretch, but you only
need to connect a couple of research dots to get from
childhood obesity to reduced brain fitness in older age.
Belly Fat and Brain Fitness are Related
First, a recent meta-analysis from researchers at Johns
Hopkins University verified that the odds of getting
Alzheimer's and other types of dementia increase as you
gain weight. A meta analysis takes all previous studies on
a particular topic and looks at them together to improve
the statistical power over any one study by itself. This
particular meta analysis looked at all studies that
evaluated whether or not risk for Alzheimer's or other
types of dementia is increased in obese individuals.
Some studies evaluated obesity status of people in their
mid-forties, others looked at people in their mid-sixties
or seventies. In any case, obesity in mid-life or late life
increased odds of getting Alzheimer's disease or other
dementias anywhere from 10 to 30 years later. Importantly,
researchers controlled for socio-economic status, lifestyle
choices, genetic factors and other illnesses so that the
condition of obesity itself, seemed to be the culprit.
Adolescent Weight Problems Lead to Adult Weight Problems
The second dot to connect is that being overweight in
childhood dramatically increases the odds of battling a
weight problem throughout adulthood. So giving in to your
kids' demands for cakes, cookies and sugared cereals now,
is not doing them any favors down the road.
There are really two ways to pack on the pounds. One is to
make more fat cells, and the second is to store more fat in
the fat cells you already have. An important study from the
Karolinska Institute in Sweden, discovered that the number
of fat cells you will carry throughout your adult life is
really set during your adolescent years. After the age of
20, your number of fat cells will stay about constant.
Obviously, this doesn't mean that your weight is set after
age 20. You can still lose weight or dramatically gain
weight. It's not uncommon to gain weight in your 30s and
40s, as your activity level and metabolism slow down,
especially if your food intake doesn't change. You can
always lose or gain fat in the cells that you already have.
However, if you gain too much weight in adolescence, when
you are actively making more fat cells, you are going to
set yourself up for a tough battle for the rest of your
life. So as parents, we should do everything possible to
regulate our kids weight while it's still somewhat in our
control. If you connect these two lines of research, you
can see that increased weight gain in childhood predicts
increased obesity in adulthood; and increased obesity in
adulthood boosts your odds of Alzheimer's and dementia in
your 70s and 80s. There have not been any research studies
following kids all the way from adolescence to old age to
look directly at the relationship between childhood weight
and dementia, but they will come eventually. Personally, I
won't be surprised if these studies find increased odds of
dementia with childhood obesity.
It's difficult to think of our kids as old people, but that
is who they will become. We must think proactively and do
everything we can to boost their odds of life-long
cognitive success. If you have concerns about your own
children's weight, work with your pediatrician to design a
diet and exercise program and get it under control while
you still can. If you struggle with a weight problem
yourself, don't give up. The more effort you put in to
bringing your weight under control, the better your odds of
a fit brain down the road. Even if you only drop some of
the weight you want to lose, every little bit helps boost
those odds.
References: Nature (2008) Jun, 453(7196):783-7 Obesity
Reviews (2008) May, 9(3):204-18
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