Researchers from the University of South Australia warn that harmful body fat can also increase the risk of dementia and stroke. After examining the gray matter in the brains of thousands of people , they concluded that increased body fat gradually leads to greater atrophy of gray matter in the brain and, consequently, an increased risk of impaired brain health .
Gray matter is an essential part of the brain responsible for controlling performance, muscle and sensory activity, as well as learning, attention, and memory.
It doesn’t always lead to disease – it just increases the risk
The study used Mendelian randomization to examine genetic data from up to 336,000 individual records in the UK Biobank, with self-reported information and linked hospital records and death records to connect dementia. The genetic and metabolic profiles of the individuals were used to confirm different types of obesity .
It was found that the gray matter of the brain in the middle to old age groups (37-73) decreased by 0.3 percent for each additional 1 kg / m 2, which equates to an additional 3 kg of weight for a person of stature average, (173 cm)
While the disease burden of obesity has increased over the past five decades, the complex nature of the disease means that not all obese people are metabolically ill, making it difficult to identify who is at risk for associated diseases and who is not. Still, being overweight certainly does generally increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and low-grade inflammation .