Brain function improves in bariatric surgery patients

Thursday, 04 November 2010 09:03

Weight-loss surgery might be good for the brain, suggests new research presented at Obesity 2010: The Obesity Society 28th Annual Scientific Meeting.

Obesity is a known risk factor for stroke, and recent research suggests that it may also be linked to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers in various laboratories, including Kent State University in Ohio, set out to determine if obesity shows signs of harming the brain before these conditions are present.

Researchers tested the cognitive function of 41 normal-weight control subjects against 109 bariatric patients. Before surgery, the control subjects scored higher in tests that evaluated elements of brain function such as attention, verbal fluency, motor skills, and emotional processing.

Dr. John Gunstad, associate professor of psychology at Kent State, states that middle-aged overweight individuals are more likely to experience difficulty with memory, problem-solving, or concentration than their normal-weight counterparts. These problems could be a precursor to more serious cognitive disorders such as stroke and Alzheimer's.
Twelve weeks after the bariatric patients underwent weight-loss surgery, all of the subjects were tested again, at which point the surgical patients scored as well as or above the control subjects. Before surgery, the bariatic patients scored low-average or average on the neurological tests. On the post-surgical re-evaluation, their scores fell into the average and above-average range.
Twelve weeks after surgery, the average BMI in the surgical patients had dropped from 46.45 to 38.61. The patients also showed improvement in their high blood pressure and diabetes, though many were still affected by sleep apnea.

Dr. Gunstad has continued to follow the patients past the 12-month mark reported in the study, and their cognitive function has continued to improve. "What we're finding is that the obese controls continue to get worse, and the bariatric surgery patients seem to maintain the gains in memory, and also show gains in other places, such as concentration and problem solving," he told Medical Medscape News.