- Researchers are reporting that bariatric surgery provides physical health benefits as well as improved brain health and better cognition for many people.
- They said the largest improvements in brain health were in episodic memory and attention.
- Changes in overall health, including cognition function, remained two years after surgery.
Bariatric surgery is associated with health benefits other than weight loss, including improved cognition, overall health, blood vessel efficiency, and cortical thickness, according to a new
Researchers reported that the health benefits remained for some people as much as two years after the surgery.
The study included 133 participants, between the ages of 35 and 55, with a mean age of nearly 47. About 80% of the subjects were women.
Researchers used neuropsychological tests, MRI scans, and laboratory tests to assess cognition at baseline and again at 6 months and 24 months after surgery. The specific type of bariatric surgery used in the study was called
The researchers collected data for weight loss via body weight, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and percentage of total body weight loss.
At the end of the study, the researchers found that:
- 11% participants showed improvement in working memory.
- 31% participants demonstrated improvements in episodic memory.
- 24% participants showed improvement in verbal fluency.
- 40% participants were better able to shift their attention.
- 43% showed improvement in global cognition.
Depressive symptoms also decreased after surgery.
The researchers also reported that neuroimaging of the temporal lobe showed changes in structure and function in many participants. Specifically, the temporal cortex had higher cortical thickness after surgery and remained so during the two-year follow-up. The temporal lobe is involved in processes such as memory, recognizing language and objects, and processing vision and sound.
Other findings from…
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