Healthy weight, BP in childhood linked to better brain function during mid-life

Maintaining a healthy weight, blood pressure and cholesterol level in childhood may help protect brain function later in life, suggest the findings of a new study published in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation.

The research claims to be the first to shine a light on cardiovascular risk factors in childhood as a possible cause for poor cognitive performance during midlife.

For the study, researchers followed the participants' cardiovascular risk factor profiles for 31 years from their childhood in 1980 to adulthood in 2011.

The researchers observed that childhood obesity was found to be linked with lower visual information processing speed and attention span.

Participants with all three risk factors (high weight, blood pressure and cholesterol) had poorer memory and associative learning, worse visual processing, decreased attention span, and slower reaction and movement time.

The researchers noted that there are currently no cures for major causes of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, so it is important to learn how early life risk factors may affect the brain. These results can be used to turn the focus of brain health from old age and midlife to people in younger age groups, explained the team.