Brain health of men with heart risks decline faster than women

A new study has discovered that brain health of men with heart risk factors declines faster than women with similar issues. 

A research from the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry says that brains of these men start to decline as early as in their mid-50s while brains of women face the same decline from their mid-60s and onwards. 

“These results suggest that mitigating cardiovascular risk is an important therapeutic target in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, and indicate that this should be addressed aggressively a decade earlier in males than in females,” the team lead of the research Paul Edison said as quoted by UPI.

Researchers said in background notes that risk factors of heart diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and smoking have previously been associated with a higher risk of dementia.

Nevertheless, it has not been made clear when these heart diseases and risks begin to affect the brain health and whether there’s any differences between men and women, the researchers added.

The researchers observed and analysed data of nearly 34,500 participants in the UK Biobank and through imaging scans, they were able to track changes in the brains as the time passed.

The researchers then calculated their heart disease risk by utilising their recorded health data.

The results showed that heart risk factors such as obesity and high levels of belly fat caused a slow loss of brain volume over the decades for both men and women.

However, for men, these damaging effects started between the ages of 55 and 74 whereas women started to show signs between 65 and 74.

Moreover, the researchers added that the men appear to have more at stake than women do.

“Modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, deserve special attention in the treatment/prevention of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers wrote.

“This highlights the importance of aggressively targeting cardiovascular risk factors before the age of 55 years to prevent neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease, in addition to the benefit of preventing other cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction [heart attack] and stroke,” they added.