Web edition: March 25, 2011 Print edition: April 23, 2011;
Vol.179 #9 (p. 8) Obesity subtly diminishes memory and other
features of thinking and reasoning even among seemingly healthy
people, an international team of scientists reports. At least
some of these impairments appear reversible through weight loss.
Researchers also report one likely mechanism for those cognitive
deficits: damage to the wiring that links the brain’s
information-processing regions. A number of studies in recent
years have shown that individuals with diseases linked to
obesity, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type
2 diabetes, don’t score as well on cognitive tests as less hefty
individuals do. To test whether weight alone — and not disease —
might be partially responsible, John Gunstad of Kent State
University in Ohio and his colleagues recruited 150 obese
individuals for a series of cognitive tests. These people
weighed on average just under 300 pounds, although some were
substantially heavier. Two-thirds would sho