According to the study, which adds to the body of evidence supporting this idea, menopause is an important time for women and their doctors to focus on heart health because it protects their brain function. The study findings are published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
“It’s shocking to know that two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women,” said first author Meiyuzhen (Chimey) Qi, Ph.D. candidate in public health epidemiology at Pitt. “The most common modifiable risk factor for dementia is cardiovascular disease, and interestingly, women’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease increases after menopause. So the next logical step was to find out if there is an association between cardiovascular risk factors associated with the menopausal transition.” — such as the type of cardiovascular fat a woman has and her cognitive function later in life,” Qi said.
To investigate this idea, researchers participated in the long-running Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) and its companion study, SWAN Cardiovascular Fat. SWAN followed a diverse group of women in their forties who had gone through menopause. 531 people with an average age of 51 were scanned for fat around their heart and veins. They were then followed for 16 years, with several cognitive tests along the way. Cardiovascular fat is divided into three types: epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), paracardial adipose tissue (PAT), and thoracic perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), which surrounds the longest part of the body’s largest artery leading from the heart. EAT and PAT are often lower quality “white” fat that the body stores, but thoracic PVAT is a better quality “brown” fat that is easily converted into energy by the body. The fat density of the scans was used as a measure of fat quality.
In this study, researchers assessed how cardiovascular fat content and quality in midlife relate to cognitive function as women age. Quantity was measured as fat volume and quality was determined by fat density. Higher thoracic PVAT in midlife was associated with stronger long-term memory later in life, and higher thoracic PVAT density, likely reflecting poorer quality white fat, was associated with impaired working memory. “This is an association. We can’t say for sure that higher or lower quality cardiovascular fat causes Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s a tantalizing hint that makes sense,” said senior author Samar El Khoudary, Ph.D., professor of public health epidemiology at Pitt. . “Of the various types of heart fat, PVAT is closest to the brain’s circulation, and brown fat is associated with better whole-body metabolism and lower markers of inflammation.
During menopause, women usually experience inflammation of the blood vessels or adipose tissue, which can manifest as a denser thoracic PVAT, which means it is of lower quality. Previous studies have shown that inflammation in blood vessels promotes plaque formation and that inflamed adipose tissue secretes abnormal cell signaling molecules that predispose people to cognitive decline. The additional SWAN cardiovascular fat study was conducted only in white and black women, so the researchers stressed that more research is needed to see if the findings apply to women or men of other races and ethnicities. Further research is also needed to determine whether the type of cardiovascular fat actually causes cognitive decline, or whether efforts to change the quality of cardiovascular fat, such as using anti-inflammatory drugs, can prevent dementia.
“However, I think our study is more evidence that taking care of your heart helps take care of your brain, and that menopause is a particularly sensitive time for heart and brain health,” said El Khoudary. “That’s why staying active and doing regular cardiovascular exercises that stimulate the heart, as well as a healthy diet and following your doctor’s appointments, are especially important in middle age. Protecting your heart during menopause can protect your brain in the future.”
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and was automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
#Agerelated #dementia #prevented #menopausal #vascular #fat #study #Health