A number of studies have demonstrated that people with smaller brain volumes experience decreases in cognition and are at a higher risk for dementia. This seems connected to the ability of neural messages to travel rapidly through the brain’s white matter or myelin sheathing — obesity slows this transfer of information.
Neurologist Stefan Knecht of the University of Munster, Germany, says that among the morbidly obese: “You can actually watch them getting worse from one three-month period to the next if you have sufficiently sensitive measures.” In obese individuals, this sheathing shows signs of damage. Using MRIs Knecht’s team linked C-reactive protein (CRP) — a blood marker of systemic inflammation — with white matter integrity in a group of 447 older adults. Both Type 2 diabetes and obesity chronically elevate CRP levels in the blood.
As CRP levels in blood increased, Knecht and his colleagues discovered, so did the likelihood that white matter’s insulation would be impaired, leading to poor cognitive functioning, memory loss, poor reasoning, and language impairment.
Losing weight, even with surgery, can reverse this memory loss — but not if it is done through starvation diets. A study in The Journal of Neuroscience found that after mice were put on a diet and lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight, the mice that were exposed to stress ate more food than those who had never been on a diet.
Western and Eastern researchers insist that a balanced diet and exercise are the only way to reach acceptable weight levels, and maintain optimum physical and brain health. Chinese medicine specialist and author, Daverick Leggett, says that obesity diminishes the spleen, which is critical to cleaning blood: “Obesity will not be overcome by starvation diets (which further weaken the spleen), nor by the consumption of cold or purgative foods (which further weaken the Yang).” Warm, cooked foods flavored with herbs and spices, especially plenty of vegetables, soups and stews, whole grains, legumes and just a little meat and low-fat protein are his prescription.
In Boston, the Newton School of Acupuncture advocates broths made by simmering organic beef or chicken bones overnight to help nourish the body, which, over time, leads to weight loss. The old Jewish recipe of chicken soup healing may have a lot more brain-sense than we give it credit for. However, Chinese medicine also counsels against the use of microwave ovens to warm or heat, saying they destroy the goodness in food.
And we’ve heard it over and over, but you still probably don’t do it: Read the labels on foods, avoid foods sweetened with corn syrup or those genetically modified, increase the amount of gluten-free foods, buy organic, cook more, and grow more. If you can buy direct from a local organic farmer, that’s even better. “We are what we eat” is an adage passed down from our grandparents. It’s never been truer.
Losing Weight, Boosting The Brain
- Get moving — even just a daily walk around the block is better than nothing.
- Every hour, get up from your desk and do brief stretching exercises or run on the spot.
- If you have an exercise routine, add something else — qigong, yoga, or pilates to increase challenges.
- Keep sugary foods and alcohol out of your home.
- Soup is better for your body than salad. Increase your warm food intake.
- Have a glass of hot water with lemon as your first drink of the day to increase alkalinity in your body and combat inflammation.
This article was first published in Brain World Magazine’s Spring 2016 issue.
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