中年发福非好事 或引发大脑萎缩

An expanding waistline and other middle-age vices are not only bad for your heart – they could cause your brain to shrink, warn researchers. 研究人员们警告，无节制增长的腰围与其他中年危机的表征不仅对于你的心脏健康大有坏处，同时还可能引发大脑的萎缩。

Smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure also take their toll on the grey matter, having an effect on brainpower just ten years later.

吸烟、肥胖与高血压同样会埋下“祸根”，带来不良的后果，对于智力的影响将在短短十年之后显现出来。

Researchers said doctors could use the information to pick out patients at a higher risk of dementia and encourage them to improve their lifestyles while there was still time.

研究者们表示，医生们应该利用这样的信息来区隔出有可能会患上老年痴呆的高危人群，并鼓励他们，在还有时间来得及挽回的情况下，应该尽量改善他们的生活方式。

More than 1,300 men and women in their 50s and 60s had their weight and height measured at the start of the U.S. study and had blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes tests.

在这项研究的一开始，有超过1300名年龄介于50岁和60岁之间的男性女性接受升高以及体重的测量，同时他们还进行了血压、胆固醇水平以及糖尿病方面的测试。

Scans to measure brain volume were carried out over the next ten years and mental tests were also run on participants.

在接下来的十年中，研究者们会定期扫描受测者的大脑体积，同时也会要求他们参加心理测试。

The brain shrinks with age, even in the healthiest of people. But in those with diabetes, the hippocampus, the brain’s ‘memory hub’, shrank more quickly than in those without the condition.

人体的大脑会随着年龄的增长而萎缩，哪怕是身体最健康的人也不例外。但是那些患有糖尿病的人群的大脑中的海马体，也就是掌控记忆力的中枢，萎缩的速度要远高于那些没有这种病症的人。

The hippocampus also shrivelled faster in smokers. And those with high blood pressure were more prone to small lesions or areas of brain damage, known as ‘white matter hyper-intensities’.

海马体也会因吸烟而更快的“瘪”掉。然而患有高血压病症的人群的大脑更容易出现脑损伤，也就是通常所说的“脑白质疏松症”。

High blood pressure was also linked to a more rapid worsening of scores on mental tests, effectively ageing the brain by up to eight years.

高血压对于智力的伤害从心理测试的分数中便能看出，这种病症更够让我们的“大脑年龄”增长八岁。

Those who were obese in their 50s tended to fare poorly on the mental tests in the study at the University of California at Davis, the journal Neurology reports.

这项由加州大学所进行的测试显示，患有肥胖症的五十多岁的人群所获得的心理测试分数很低。

Study author Charles DeCarli said: ‘Identifying these risk factors early could be useful in screening people for dementia and encouraging people to make changes to their lifestyle before it’s too late.’

研究报告的作者Charles DeCarli说：“尽早的发现这些危险的型号能够向人们敲响老年痴呆症的警钟，并且敦促人们改变不健康的生活方式。”

A previous study of American pensioners found that obesity ages the brain by up to 16 years. It is thought that high levels of fat raise the odds of the arteries clogging up, cutting the flow of blood and oxygen.

之前的一份研究指出，肥胖最高能让大脑“老”上16岁。高水平的脂肪含量会使得动脉更易堵塞，并降低了血液与氧气的流动。

People who are overweight at 60 are more than twice as likely to get dementia by 75.

60岁左右体重超标的人群到了75岁时有两倍的风险可能患上老年痴呆。