Men living with obesity may lose memory a decade earlier than women, study finds

Men could begin to lose their memory up to ten years earlier than women if they are living with obesity, according to new research.

Scientists at Imperial College London found that obesity can accelerate the decline of brain function in men, potentially increasing their risk of developing dementia earlier in life.

Dementia, which affects millions of people around the world, gradually erodes memory and independence, with those aged over seventy-five most likely to be affected.

The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, examined data from more than thirty-four thousand adults aged between forty-five and eighty-two who were enrolled in the UK Biobank. Participants were assessed for obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes which are all known risk factors for dementia.

Researchers discovered that men living with overweight showed signs of shrinking brain volume and cognitive decline between the ages of fifty-five and seventy-four, while the same effects were observed in women between sixty-five and seventy-four, around a decade later.

Adults living with obesity or heart disease are more likely to develop dementia, as both conditions can cause inflammation and reduce blood flow to the brain, contributing to cognitive decline.

Using brain scans, the researchers measured participants’ brain volume and levels of abdominal fat to explore the impact of cardiovascular risk on neurodegeneration, the progressive loss of brain cells associated with dementia.

They found that higher levels of belly fat were linked to smaller brain volumes, indicating a loss of brain cells and neural connections. The association between abdominal fat and reduced brain size was particularly strong in men.

Professor Paul Edison, from Imperial’s Department of Brain Sciences, who led the research, said doctors should intervene earlier to prevent dementia by targeting obesity and cardiovascular risk in men.

The study’s authors also suggested that weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro could potentially be repurposed to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

There are currently around 982,000 people living with dementia in the United Kingdom, a figure expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040.

In the United States, an estimated 6.7 million adults aged sixty-five and over are living with Alzheimer’s, a number projected to reach 13.8 million by 2060.

However, the NHS estimates that about forty per cent of dementia cases could be prevented through lifestyle changes such as losing weight, exercising more or giving up smoking.