Obesity May Accelerate Brain Aging

natehoy writes "According to the US News and World Report, a recent study has shown a link between obesity and the loss of neurological tissue. The brains of elderly patients who were obese had on average 8% less tissue than their trimmer counterparts. Overweight patients had brains lighter by about 4%. This could have implications for the onset of dementia illnesses such as Alzheimer's. Just one more risk factor to add to the growing body (no pun intended) of reasons to try and stay trim."

Dogma

[Anonymous Coward]

By this point, the "correlationnotcausation" tag seems a lot more to me like a whole bunch of taggers are hoping blunt denial will make it so that correlation is not just weak, but completely and utterly worthless as a scientific tool so they don't need to change a thing about their lives.

Call it a hunch.

Re:These morally chiding "correlation" studies

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that goes without saying. The only way to find enough fat people to study is by starting out in the US.

Re:I also noticed a link

[eln]

No, actually I think this study might have some merit. You see, fat people tend to have fat, stubby fingers. It is very difficult to play the Nintendo DS, with its small buttons and tiny touch screen, with fingers that resemble sausages. Even the Wii is difficult to play for morbidly obese people, since its buttons are also small, and the physical movement required is beyond the capability of those whose couches have become permanent parts of their anatomy.

What does this have to do with brain aging, you might ask. Elementary, my dear lardass. Without the Nintendo Brain Age series of games, how can we possibly keep our brains from aging? They're like steroids for your brain, except the link between the games and shrinking testicles has not yet been firmly established. So, unless we can come up with a good way for fat people to play these Brain Age games without causing them to sweat even more profusely than they already do, I'm afraid they're all doomed to early-onset Alzheimer's.

It's basic common sense, really.

WTF

[VisiX]

It is not obvious to fat people you insensitive clod!

Re:These morally chiding "correlation" studies

[A. B3ttik]

Ahem, 36%, excuse me.

Re:These morally chiding "correlation" studies

[CannonballHead]

But I didn't read the TOS, they were too long, therefore I can't be held to them. ;)

Re:I also noticed a link

[ClosedSource]

Are you talking about smokers or drinkers?