Want to Sharpen Your Mind? Drop A Few Pounds

New research led by John Gunstad, professor at Kent State University showed that weight loss is not only good for your body but also for our mind.

In his study, he measured the attention and memory of a group of 150 overweight volunteers. The volunteers took a mental-skills test at the beginning of the study and another after 12 months. To begin with, “24% of the patients showed impaired learning and 23% showed signs of poor memory recall.” Those who had undergone bypass surgery within the 12 months scored average or above average on the second test and for those who did not undergo surgery, their scores dropped even more.

Gunstad mentions that obesity “affects a number of physiological mechanisms that can have an adverse effect on the brain.” For example, hypertensions, Type 2Diabetes, and sleep apnea are bad for the brain and are caused for being overweight.

I found this article very interesting because obesity is a big issue in the US and everyone always mentions the health risks and diseases that come with it, but the loss of abilities of recall and attention are rarely mentioned.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/14/want-to-sharpen-your-mind-drop-a-few-pounds/