Posted: 10/16/06 - 05:01 Post subject: Obesity lowers intelligence
Not only is it bad for our appearance, social status and health but scientists say that putting on weight may interfere with our intelligence and lower it.
The latest study that lasted for five years and included 2,200 adults finds a link between obesity and the decline in a person's cognitive functions. Participants belonged to an age group raging from 32 to 62. They needed to take four mental ability tests before the study started and then again five years later.
The tests revealed that people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 20 or less could recall 56 % of words in a vocabulary test, while the obese with a BMI of 30 or higher, could remember only 44 %.
Those with higher MBI (people with more weight) had cognitive decline five years later when their recall had fallen to 37.5 % while the people with normal weights retained their recall timing.
Scientists explain this by saying that it could be hormones that are secreted from fats that could be damaging the cerebral cells and decreasing brain functions or that the brain arteries could be thickening and preventing blood from reaching the brain in time.
These results are serious as it shows that obesity negatively affects every single organ in the body and the fact that the obesity is spreading like a contagious disease is even more alarming.
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