Declinig cardiac function accelerates brain aging

Courtesy of Medscape Medical News

Declining cardiac function is associated with lower total brain volume, shows a new report using data from the Framingham Offspring Cohort. The findings are preliminary, but link reduced cardiac index with neuropsychological and imaging markers of increased brain aging. "Generally speaking, it seems that heart and brain health are related, so proper management of cardiovascular risk factors may have important implications on brain health," lead investigator Angela Jefferson, PhD, from the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News. The results were published online August 2 in Circulation.

"Whether lower cardiac index leads to reduced brain volumes and accelerates neurodegeneration on an eventual path to dementia is not yet clear. What is known is that various vascular risk factors, including decrements in cardiac function, are determinants of dementia — both Alzheimer disease and variants of vascular cognitive disorders. This provides opportunities to find interventions that modify the course of these diseases predicted to be of major impact on our aging population." Dr. Jefferson acknowledged additional research is needed.

Bonnie - Why is this a surprise to researchers? Of course the two are connected. Just as the heart is dependent on the brain regulate its wiring, the brain is dependent on the consistent, dense, energized blood flow from the heart. Any deficiency in cardiac function will affect the brain adversely.

I can see drug companies taking this and pushing statins even more than they have already. There's one problem though: one side effect of statins that has emerged (and I have seen in clients) is memory impairment.