Affiliate Disclaimer
Some links in this article are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we find useful to our readers
When it comes to belly fat or the visceral fat around the abdomen, the same has been found to have negative impacts on the overall well being, especially the immune system as per a new study. Less of the muscle and the more of the body fat have adverse effects on the immunity of an individual.
A new study (R) conducted by the researchers from the Iowa State University has found that less of muscle and more of the body fats in the body not just affects the effective thinking capabilities in the body but also has direct impacts on the immune response of an individual.
The findings from the research is expected to help find improved treatment options that help maintain mental flexibility in the aging adults that have been suffering from obesity, lazy and inactive lifestyle and even muscle loss throughout the life.
The study has been conducted under Auriel Willette, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition, and Brandon Klinedinst, a PhD student in neuroscience and actively assessed the data from 4000 middle aged UK residents including both men and women.
For the study, the researchers compared the results of the lean muscle mass, abdominal fat, and subcutaneous fat with the way the same has been associated with the fluid intelligence in the individuals over the course of six years.
Both the researchers found that the middle aged people, especially the ones between the age group of 40 to 50 years who had excessive belly fat were the ones with the least fluid intelligence as they got older. On the contrary, having a greater muscle mass helped reduce the risks furthermore.
Addressing the results from the study, Willette said that it is not the chronological order that was found to impact the fluid intelligence but the biological age which had direct impacts on the overall process.
People tend to have a common tendency of starting to gain fat around the abdominal region during the middle age which gradually progresses with time. In order to maintain this, it is quite important that one focuses on including more of exercises and an active lifestyle to maintain lean muscles.
The lead author of the study, Brandon Klinedinst also suggested saying that exercising, especially the resistance training has been found to have beneficial impacts in helping with the condition.
To further dig into the matter, the researchers looked into the possible impacts of the immune system on the correlation between the heightened fats and muscle with the fluid intelligence. Prior studies have already found the correlation between how there is a heightened immune response for people with higher BMI that later leads to issues with one’s cognition.
The study further explained the link between the abdominal fat with the reduced fluid intelligence with the heightened impacts of two cells in the body, the lymphocytes and eosinophils. This was the case with women. In men, it was basophiles, another type of white blood cells that helped explain the correlation even better. The muscle mass was productive in this case but the immune system didn’t play a major role in the process at all.
While the researchers have established a correlation between the body fat with that of the decreased fluid intelligence, there needs to be more conducted studies to find how the same impacts the risks of Alzheimer’s disease.
Klinedinst stating saying that they do require further conduction of studies to establish the correlation and find how people with less muscle and more of fat mass are likely to develop the risks of Alzheimer’s disease.
