United States: Research indicates that heart disease produces brain atrophy, which resembles dementia symptoms.
A March 26 Neurology journal report shows that people with initial heart condition indicators tend to develop brain structures linked to dementia.
Research showed that patients with inefficient heart blood pumping experience smaller brain volumes compared to individuals with healthy hearts.
Seven European and US studies were combined in this research to analyze heart function results together with brain scans using MRI.
As the senior researcher Dr. Frank Wolters, a senior scientist with Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, noted, the study “shows that even mild … dysfunction is associated with adverse brain health,” US News reported.
“Evaluating people who have heart problems … for problems with memory and thinking skills could help us detect any cognitive decline early and start interventions,” Wolters stated.
How was the study conducted?
The combination of studies enrolled more than 11,000 individuals. The research indicated that individuals with minimum moderate to extreme systolic dysfunction suffered from reduced brain volume when compared to patients with normal hearts.
People who suffer from diastolic dysfunction experience the heart failing to properly fill with blood during heartbeats along with smaller brain volumes, which become most evident in the memory-related region of the hippocampus.
Research confirmed that heart symptoms that fall short of heart failure are connected to reduced brain volumes in patients.
Study findings revealed that reduced brain sizes are associated with both mild cognitive impairment and dementia development, US News reported.
Furthermore, “This review shows that better heart health is associated with larger brain volumes, suggesting that the preservation of heart function could help maintain brain health and memory and thinking skills during the aging process,” Wolters maintained.