New research is more closely linking obesity to dementia, showing that a weight-maintaining hormone is key to brain-signal transmission.
Higher levels of leptin, a hormone that helps maintain normal body weight, is associated with better signal-transmitting brain white matter in middle-aged adults, according to a study by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio).
“The findings support the known role of leptin variations in late-life dementia risk by relating its deficiency with changes in white matter structure, which is an early event in the process of cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia,” said Claudia Satizabal, PhD, associate professor at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio.
Read more of the original article from WorldHealth
