Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, US): A study added to the evidence that the menopausal transition is a critical time for women and their doctors to focus on heart health, which protects their brain health. Findings of the study published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. "It is shocking to know that two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's disease are women," said Meiyuzhen (Chimey) Qi, first author and Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology at Pitt Public Health.
"The most common modifiable risk factor for dementia is cardiovascular disease, and, interestingly, a woman's risk for cardiovascular disease increases after menopause. So the next logical step was to see if there was a link between cardiovascular risk factors related to the menopause transition - such as the type of cardiovascular fat a woman has - and her cognitive function later in life," Qi said.
The scientists went to the long-running Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) and its supplementary study, SWAN Cardiovascular Fat, to investigate the idea. SWAN observed a varied group of women in their forties as they went through the menopausal transition. 531 individuals, with an average age of 51, had scans to learn about the fat around their hearts and veins. They were then monitored for 16 years, with several cognitive tests administered along the way.
Cardiovascular fat is classified into three types: epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), paracardial adipose tissue (PAT), and thoracic perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), which surrounds the longest portion of the body's largest artery leading away from the heart. EAT and PAT are often poorer quality "white" fats that the body retains, but thoracic PVAT is a better quality "brown" fat that the body easily transforms to energy. The density of fat in the scans was employed as a measure of fat quality by the researchers.
In this study, the researchers assessed how the quantity and quality of cardiovascular fat during midlife are related to cognitive function as women age. Quantity was measured as volume of fat, whereas quality was determined based on the density of fat. A greater volume of thoracic PVAT during midlife was related to stronger long-term memory later in life, while higher density of thoracic PVAT - likely reflecting lower quality white fat - was linked to worsening working memory.