Brain may age faster in people whose hearts pump less blood

September, 2010

A large study confirms that your cardiac health affects your brain, and provides evidence that the extent of this problem is greater than we think.

I have often spoken of the mantra: What’s good for your heart is good for your brain. The links between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline gets more confirmation in this latest finding that people whose hearts pumped less blood had smaller brains than those whose hearts pumped more blood. The study involved 1,504 participants of the decades-long Framingham Offspring Cohort who did not have a history of stroke, transient ischemic attack or dementia. Participants were 34 to 84 years old.

Worryingly, it wasn’t simply those with the least amount of blood pumping from the heart who had significantly more brain atrophy (equivalent to almost two years more brain aging) than the people with the highest cardiac index. Those with levels at the bottom end of normal showed similar levels of brain atrophy. Moreover, although only 7% of the participants had heart disease, 30% had a low cardiac index.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/aha-bma072810.php

Reference:

[1785] Jefferson, A. L., Himali J. J., Beiser A. S., Au R., Massaro J. M., Seshadri S., et al.
(2010). Cardiac Index Is Associated With Brain Aging: The Framingham Heart Study.
Circulation. 122(7), 690 - 697.

seniors

Aging

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