A recent study suggests that a healthy heart benefits an individuals' brain.
Dr. Evan Thacker, lead researcher of the study who is also an assistant professor and chronic disease epidemiologist at Brigham Young University says that poor heart fitness may also lead to memory impairment. However, people with healthy hearts are likely to have sharp mind.
The team studied around 17,800 Americans who were aged 45 or more. The participants of the study underwent a mental examination at the beginning of the study and again after four years. Around half of the participants lived in the so-called "stroke belts" of southeast U.S., which includes the states of Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina.
The researchers assessed the condition of the heart based on factors such as smoking, physical activity, diet, the body mass index, fasting glucose level, blood pressure and total cholesterol.
The cognitive function of the participants was normal and they had never encountered a stroke before. The researchers found that changes in cognitive ability in the participants were linked primarily with cardiovascular health.
The researchers found that fluency, learning and memory shortfalls developed in around 4.6 percent of the participants who had the weakest heart health. Around 2.7 percent of the people with mediocre heart fitness and about 2.6 percent people who had the fittest hearts developed learning and memory shortages.
"We did not observe a dose-response pattern; people with intermediate and high levels of cardiovascular health had similar incidence of cognitive impairment. This suggests that even when high cardiovascular health is not achieved, intermediate levels ... are preferable to low cardiovascular health," per the study. "This is an encouraging message for population health promotion, because intermediate cardiovascular health is a more realistic target than ideal cardiovascular health for many individuals."
The researchers also claim that healthier heart was found amongst men, people who had high education and people with high income levels. Memory impairment was common in people who had low income, with pre-existing heart diseases and who lived in the stroke belt.
Although the study was able to establish a connection between healthier heart and good mental function, the scientists were not able to prove if better brain function is a result of a healthy heart.
The study has been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
