Losing weight not only makes you healthier, it can also boost your MEMORY
- - Obese people have impaired episodic memory - the memory of the events that
- happen throughout life
- - Older, overweight women who lose weight through dieting can change the brain
- regions used for memory
- - This improves episodic memory proving that obesity-related memory impairment
- is reversible
By EMMA INNES
|
Shedding the pounds not only makes you healthier, it also improves your memory, research has revealed.
Previous studies have shown that obese people have impaired episodic memory - the memory of events throughout life.
But scientists say older, overweight women who lose weight through dieting actually change the regions of the brain important for memory.
Overweight women who lose weight through dieting change the regions of their brains important for memory - this reverses obesity-related memory impairment
The study was conducted to understand whether weight loss would improve memory and if this related to changes in relevant brain activity.
MRI scans allowed the researchers to monitor brain activity while the study participants performed a memory test.
The researchers from The Umea University, in Sweden, assigned 20 overweight, post-menopausal women with an average age of 61 to one of two healthy diets for six months.
Nine women had the Paleolithic diet, which is made up of 30 per cent protein, 30 per cent carbohydrates and 40 per cent unsaturated fats.
The remaining women followed the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, which contains 15 per cent protein, 55 per cent carbohydrates and 30 per cent fats.
Before and after the diet, BMI was measured and episodic memory was tested by asking the women to memorise unknown pairs of faces and names presented on a screen.
Obese people often have impaired episodic memory - the memory of the major life events that take place throughout life
Later, the women were again shown the faces along with three letters, and their memory retrieval task was to indicate the correct letter that corresponded to the first letter of the name linked to the face.
Results showed the average BMI of all the women dropped from 32.1 to 29.2 - below the cut off for obesity - after six months of dieting, and their average weight fell from 188.9 pounds to 171.3.
Memory performance improved after weight loss, and brain activity pattern during memory testing reflected this.
After weight loss, brain activity increased during memory encoding in the brain regions important for identification and matching of faces.
Also, brain activity fell after weight loss in the regions that are associated with retrieval of episodic memories, which indicates more efficient retrieval.
Dr Andreas Pettersson said: ‘The altered brain activity after weight loss suggests that the brain becomes more active while storing new memories and therefore needs fewer brain resources to recollect stored information.
‘Our findings suggest that obesity-associated impairments in memory function are reversible, adding incentive for weight loss.’
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