Heart Problems in Your 20s May Harm Your Brain Health Later

Having a healthy heart can protect your brain health later in life. People suffering from health problems such as smoking, high cholesterol, or a high body mass index (BMI) during their early 20s are more likely to affect their brain health decades later.

Highlights:

Heart problems in 20s may affect brain health and performance in later life
Suffering from heart health problems such as smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or a high body mass index (BMI) can affect your thinking and memory skills
Therefore, a healthy heart today means a healthier brain later in life

Having a healthy heart today means a healthier brain later in life, suggests a new study. Too many heart problems at an early age can hinder your overall brain health and performance. Hence, make sure to keep your heart healthy now, so that your brain will benefit later.//

Having health issues such as smoking, high cholesterol or a high body mass index (BMI) in your 20s may make you more likely to have problems with thinking and memory skills and even the brain's ability to properly regulate its blood flow, according to a preliminary study presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 72nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada.

Diet, Lifestyle and Heart Disease
The correlation between diet, lifestyle and heart disease. The importance of balanced diet life style and exercise for controlling heart disease.

‘Watch out: People suffering from health problems such as smoking, high cholesterol, or a high body mass index (BMI) during their early 20s are more likely to affect their brain health decades later. So, keep your heart healthy now, and your brain will benefit later.’
Read More..

"These results indicate that people need to pay close attention to their health even in their early 20s," said study author Farzaneh A. Sorond, M.D., Ph.D., of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"We've known that vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels are linked to cerebrovascular damage and problems with thinking skills in older people, but this study shows that these factors may be linked decades earlier and injury may start much earlier."

Details of the Study

Good Heart Health can Equal Good Brain Health: Study
Better heart health benefits brain health, cognitive aging and can decrease the burden of dementia, reports a new study.

The study involved 189 people with an average age of 24 who were followed for 30 years as part of a larger study. Of the group, 45% were black and 55% were white. The people were tested eight times over the course of the study. Each time, their cardiovascular health was assessed based on five factors: smoking, BMI, blood pressure, total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose level.

At their 30-year visit, the people's thinking and memory skills were tested, along with their brain's ability to regulate its blood flow.

Promote Heart-Healthy Lifestyle in Schools can Prevent Cardiovascular Deaths
Education about risk factors of heart disease and encouraging a healthy diet and lifestyle should begin in school children in order to prevent heart disease in adult life, according to a recent innovative study.

Findings of the Study

The research team found that people with better cardiovascular health at the beginning of the study were more likely to have higher scores on the tests of thinking and memory skills 30 years later than those with worse cardiovascular health. For example, on a test of attention skills where scores ranged from seven to 103, each point higher on the cardiovascular health score was associated with a 2.2 points higher score in attention skills.

Say Cheers: Drinking Beer Can Improve Your Heart, Brain Health
Is beer healthy? Drinking beer in moderation can reduce heart disease risk and improve your brain health. Here’s How.

The results were the same after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect thinking and memory skills, such as level of education.

The people with better cardiovascular health at the beginning of the study and seven years into the study were more likely to have better cerebral autoregulation, or the body's ability to maintain stable blood flow in the brain. This means that during changes in blood pressure, the brain is able to maintain adequate blood flow.

"More focus on a life course research approach is needed to help us better understand how these vascular risk factors affect brain health as we age," Sorond said.

She noted that the study does not prove that better cardiovascular health results in better thinking and memory skills or better ability of the brain to regulate blood flow; it only shows an association.

Limitations of the Study

A limitation of the study was that researchers did not have cerebral autoregulation measures at each visit to better understand the relationship over time between cardiovascular health and brain blood flow regulation as they relate to midlife cognition.

Source-Eurekalert