Brains of overweight people look ten years older than those of lean peers

Re:Brains of overweight people look ten years older than tho... by DenisM on Friday August 05, 2016 @11:08AM (#12232863)

Assuming observations are statistically sound...

Explanation 1: being overweight leads to brain deficiency.

Explanation 2: brain deficiency leads to being overweight.

Explanation 3: a hidden variable, such as excessive blood sugar or nutrient deficiency, lead to both.

Explanation 4: there is no brain deficiency since there is no cognitive impact.

The article states as much, which is very refreshing to see in a mainstream paper.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brains of overweight people look ten years older than tho... by enraged_camel on Friday August 05, 2016 @11:50AM (#12233222)

Explanation 5: People who are in shape are more likely to be active and exercise regularly, which have very noticeable benefits on the brain.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brains of overweight people look ten years older than tho... by hx87 on Friday August 05, 2016 @12:32PM (#12233625)

That would be a subset of Explanation 3.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brains of overweight people look ten years older than tho... by will_brown on Friday August 05, 2016 @12:21PM (#12233524)

>a hidden variable, such as excessive blood sugar

Well we do know that eating a lot of sugar increases insulin production and insulin enlarges cells. I am not sure about the whole causation/correlation part of it, but for example with increased insulin production, fat cells become larger and their will be a greater likelihood of obesity even in skinny people. Moreover, I understand it is common for people with high insulin levels to have enlarged organs.

It is an outrageous theory, but maybe the difference in the brain is simply cell size due to insulin since that might affect appearance but not function.

[ Parent | on HN ]