To lose weight, to gain in brain power

While weight loss surgery can make you thin, you can make smarter research also suggests

• Washington Post

• Photo credit: Delivery

Bariatric surgery can make you look slimmer. But how can you smarter, too?

This is a question that scientists have wondered, because they know it's the opposite. Studies have shown that the decline in brain function in people who have shown too many kilos. Other studies have shown that compared to people who are thin and those who are overweight, 26 percent are more likely to develop a form of dementia and those who are overweight, 64 percent are more likely to achieve this goal.

So a group of researchers at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil conducted what they believe is the first study to the front monitor brain function in patients before and after surgery for weight loss. Their results suggest that the brain actually benefits of bariatric surgery, although the measured effects were modest.

The researchers recruited 17 obese women who are planning to Gastric Bypass Roux-en-Y, a method of stomach shrinks the size of an egg and directs food past a large part of the small intestine. Both of these measures reduce the amount of nutrients and calories to absorb the body of the food.

The average BMI for the 17 women was 50.1. (A woman who is 5 feet tall would have a BMI of 50, when she weighed 255 pounds, a woman who would 5 feet 6 inches tall, the same BMI, when she weighed 309 pounds, according to the table. National Heart, Lung and Blood) Six months after surgery, average BMI fell from 37.2 - still high enough to be considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention of disease.

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Testing

Before undergoing surgery, the women took an IQ test and six tests of their memory and executive functions (such as the Stroop color test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Rey Complex Figure Test). He also gave blood samples and PET had what researchers can measure the metabolic activity in the brain. All tests were repeated six months after the surgery.

Another group of 16 women served as controls. Your age and level of education were essentially the same as in obese women, but their body mass index was significantly lower (22.3 average). Thin women have different evidence that obese women, but they once did.

It turned out that the women in both groups have so well performed on cognitive tests. But compared with the initial results, improved obese women in one of the tests - the Trail Making Test - after surgery, the researchers found.

Differences in brain scans were pronounced. Before surgery, the brains of obese women appeared harder than the brains of lean women to work. This is especially true in areas of the right hemisphere, which are activated when people have to make for cognitive impairment, the researchers wrote. But after the operation, "are obvious," these differences, they added.

Blood tests have shown that surgical interventions women were more sensitive to insulin, and reducing the levels of harmful proteins associated with inflammation. It also increases the level of hormone GLP-1. Similar hormones have been shown to benefit from reduced inflammation in the brain, and the number of beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

Overall, the researchers found that obesity increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease have a similar version of the E4 amount of ApoE gene effect. Although it is impossible, their APOE, the good news for those who are overweight is changing gene, they can probably reduce the risk of cognitive impairment due to weight loss, the researchers wrote.

The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

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