Obesity can lead to brain damage.

The more scientists study obesity, the morethey are convinced of its destructive effects on the human body. Researchers from the Netherlands have found that even the human brain suffers from the accumulation of fat in the body - reducing the amount of gray matter leads to changes in its structure. The discovery was made in the course of studying the results of a tomographic scan of 12,000 people, so there is no doubt about its veracity.

Information about the state of the brain of obese people wastaken from a bank of biological material in the UK. The new study looked at data from people aged 45–76 years, and all of them demonstrated a clear relationship between obesity and changes in brain structure.

We found that higher levels of fat distributed throughout the body are associated with smaller volumes of important brain structures, including gray matter structures that are located in the center of the brain.

Ilona Dekkers, radiologist

It is noteworthy that in men and women changesbear a different character. For example, in men, a decrease in the volume of gray matter in general, including in the areas of the thalamus and the hippocampus, is more pronounced. Meanwhile, in women, only the region of the basal nuclei — the clusters of gray matter responsible for regulating movements — suffers. In addition to gray matter, white is also affected, but on a microscopic scale - the effects of these changes are not yet clear.

For all this, the researchers do not deny thatcausation may be inverse. It is likely that this is not obesity affects the brain, and violations of the brain leads to the accumulation of fat. To understand all this, it is important for scientists to conduct more research.

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