- Obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar levels in young adults may be linked to greater declines in thinking and memory later in life, according to new research.
- More research is needed to know what effect managing these risk factors in young adulthood has on late-life cognitive abilities.
Young adults with risk factors for cardiovascular disease — high blood pressure, obesity, or high blood sugar levels — may also have a higher risk for greater cognitive declines later in life, suggests a new study.
“[The results from our study] are striking and suggest that early adulthood may be a critical time for the relationship between these health issues and late-life cognitive skills,” study author Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a cognitive aging and dementia researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release.
People can modify, treat, or manage these risk factors with medications or lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise.
Addressing them is already known to boost heart health, but may be good for the brain as well.
“It’s possible that treating or modifying these health issues in early adulthood could prevent or reduce problems with thinking skills in later life,” Yaffe said.
The new study was published online March 17 in the journal Neurology.
Source: healthline