Study Reveals Abdominal Fat’s Impact on Brain Health and Cognitive Function in High-Risk Alzheimer’s Patients

According to researchers from Rutgers Health, the influence of abdominal fat on brain health and cognitive function tends to be more pronounced in middle-aged men at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared to women.

In individuals in their middle age with a familial history of Alzheimer’s disease, the volume of fat in abdominal organs such as the pancreas, liver, and belly is linked to their brain volumes and cognitive abilities, as per a study published in the journal Obesity. The research was conducted by Sapir Golan Shekhtman, a Ph.D. student at the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and overseen by Michal Schnaider Beeri, the director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at Rutgers Brain Health Institute.

Examining 204 healthy middle-aged offspring of individuals with Alzheimer’s-dementia, the study assessed fat accumulation in the pancreas, liver, and abdomen through MRI scans.

Beeri, who holds the Krieger Klein Endowed Chair in Neurodegeneration Research at BHI and is a faculty member at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, noted, “Among middle-aged men at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease, elevated pancreatic fat levels were associated with decreased cognition and brain volumes, indicating a potential sex-specific connection between distinct abdominal fat stores and brain health.”

Obesity is a known risk factor for diminished cognitive function and heightened dementia risk, with varying implications across genders. These findings underscore the importance of exploring the interactions between fat distribution, brain aging, and cognition within the context of gender disparities.

Moreover, the study challenges the conventional use of body mass index (BMI) as the primary metric for assessing obesity-related cognitive risks, highlighting its limitations in capturing body fat distribution and accounting for gender differences.

Shekhtman emphasized, “Our results reveal stronger correlations compared to those observed between BMI and cognition, suggesting that abdominal fat stores, rather than BMI, pose a risk factor for diminished cognitive function and increased dementia risk.”

These findings pave the way for targeted interventions and further exploration of gender-specific approaches to understand and address the impact of abdominal fat on brain health.