BP, Smoking, Obesity All Linked to Brain Health

Higher levels of vascular risk factors (VRFs) are associated with decreased brain health, according to the results of a recent study.

There is currently a lack of evidence on the relationship between VRFs and brain macro- and micro-structure in older adults, according to the researchers.

For their study, they examined data from 9722 patients from the UK Biobank, defining VRFs as smoking, hypertension, pulse pressure, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, body mass index, and waist-hip ratio. All participants had undergone brain MRI at a single cite in Cheadle, Manchester.

Overall, the researchers found that all VRFs except for high cholesterol were associated with increased brain atrophy, decreased gray matter, and poorer white matter health. Smoking pack years, hypertension, and diabetes had the most consistent associations across all brain measures.

“Higher levels of VRFs were associated with poorer brain health across grey and white matter macrostructure and microstructure. Effects are mainly additive, converging upon frontal and temporal cortex, subcortical structures, and specific classes of white matter fibers,” the researchers concluded.

“Though effect sizes were small, these results emphasize the vulnerability of brain health to vascular factors even in relatively healthy middle and older age, and the potential to partly ameliorate cognitive decline by addressing these malleable risk factors.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Cox SR, Lyall DM, Ritchie SJ, et al. Associations between vascular risk factors and brain MRI indices in UK Biobank [published online March 11, 2019]. European Heart Journal. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz100.