Brain News
Researchers at the University of South Australia explored how a long-term high-fat diet is linked to obesity and cognitive impairment. The study is published in the journal Metabolic Brain Disease.
The Study
The research team randomly allocated laboratory mice to a standard diet or a high-fat diet for 30 weeks. The subject animals’ food intake, body weight, glucose levels, insulin tolerance, and cognitive dysfunction were monitored at different intervals.
The Findings
The results revealed that the mice on the high-fat diet gained a lot of weight and developed insulin resistance. They also started behaving abnormally, in comparison to the mice that fed on a standard diet.
This is because a high-fat diet shrinks the brain. Consequently, the obese mice displayed pathological changes in the brain and significant deterioration in cognition.
The researchers, therefore, confirmed the link between a long term high-fat diet and several health disorders like obesity, diabetes, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
One of the lead researchers, Professor Bobrovskaya, remarked: “Obesity and diabetes impair the central nervous system, exacerbating psychiatric disorders and cognitive decline. [In fact] obese individuals have about a 55% increased risk of developing depression, and diabetes will double that risk.”
To Know More You May Refer To
Xiong, J., Deng, I., Kelliny, S., Lin, L., Bobrovskaya, L., & Zhou, X. F. (2022). Long term high fat diet induces metabolic disorders and aggravates behavioral disorders and cognitive deficits in MAPT P301L transgenic mice. Metabolic brain disease, 37(6), 1941–1957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-022-01029-x
