Your BMI Can Actually Affect Your Brain Size

It turns out that having a high BMI can actually affect your brain size…in that it can make it shrink. Researchers have found that when your body mass index is higher than 25, each two units that it rises above that will shrink your left hippocampus by one percent. Whoa.

A shrinking brain is of course an issue, because it is associated with degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Essentially someone that is obese is putting himself at a higher and more speedy risk of the developing the disease.

This occurs because fat can produce inflammatory molecules that are toxic to the neurons in the brain. Having a high BMI also puts you at a higher risk for having heart problems and diabetes, which can then in turn lead to damage of the blood vessels in the brain, which then will increase the risks for brain related diseases once again.

Calculating your body mass index is a relatively simple calculation that has to do with comparing one’s height to weight. Here’s how you can figure yours out:

[(Weight in pounds) / (Height in inches) (Height in inches)] x 703

The using the number that you get, you can assess it within the following scale. If your BMI is:

18.4 or lower: You are considered underweight
18.5 to 24.9: You are considered a normal weight
25 to 29.9: You are considered overweight
30 or higher: You are considered obese

Anyone who falls into the overweight or obese categories should both work on healthier eating choices and also getting the body moving. One study that was published in the journal Aging & Mental Health determined that people who work out the most or get the most physical activity in their day are 38 percent less likely to develop degenerative brain diseases than people who don’t stay as active.

A separate study found that in addition to the link between a high MBI and issues with the brain, the associated risk is even higher when the weight is being carried in the midsection…whether or not their BMI is above average at all.

A study on over 6,000 adults from northern California found that people in their 40’s with a BMI over 30 had a 3.6 times higher risk of developing dementia in their 70’s than people of a normal BMI. But they also found that adults in a normal BMI range who were carrying excess fat around their belly area were twice as likely to develop dementia in their 70’s than people who did not.

So while keeping track of your BMI can be important for a lot of health reasons, so is staying fit and eating healthy to avoid gaining unnecessary weight in the midsection. The overall implications of this is that too much fat or too much misplaces fat on the body can start to negatively affect the brain way more dementia ever appear. This only gets more and more important as you age, so it’s good to pay attention to as soon as possible.