Archive for August 27th, 2009
When it comes to weight management and the health risks of excessive body fat and obesity you would think in this day and age it would be a no Brainer. It is important to maintain proper lean mass to body fat ratio for optimal health. In a recent article in U.S. News & World Report new studies on obesity from UCLA have given a whole new meaning to the term No Brainer.
According to a study conducted by senior author Paul Thompson a UCLA neuroscientist, published online in Human Brain Mapping “The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than their healthier counterparts while [those of] overweight people looked 8 years older,” The Article goes on to say Clinically obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue, while the overweight had 4 percent less brain tissue compared to normal-weight individuals. “This is the first study to show physical evidence in the brain that connects overweight and obesity and cognitive decline,” said Thompson, who is professor of neurology at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. This study reaffirms the importance of healthy weight management.
“Obesity affects every system in your body. The body can’t be splintered. It’s completely linked. We are what we eat and we eat too much,” he said. “The bottom line is that an obese, sedentary person is going to have a breakdown of every organ system, and that includes a greater chance of impotence and infertility and other things that people don’t generally think are directly related to obesity.”
Just another reason to eat right, get you body off the sofa and get moving. Staying physically and mentally fit is so important to being able to live your life fully alive.