{"id":1068,"date":"2012-05-20T07:51:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T07:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personalpolishing.wordpress.com\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2012-05-20T07:51:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T07:51:20","slug":"forget-the-second-helping-link-discovered-between-calories-and-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/forget-the-second-helping-link-discovered-between-calories-and-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget the Second Helping: Link Discovered Between Calories and Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Carole Jackson<\/strong>, Bottom Line Health<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, \u00e2\u0080\u009cOh man, I ate too much. I shouldn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t have had that second serving,\u00e2\u0080\u009d I would have quite a few nickels!<\/p>\n

Obviously, excessive eating is no good for your waistline\u00e2\u0080\u00a6neither are all of the associated ailments of obesity. But, it gets worse. All that overeating actually may be making you forgetful. According to a new study\u00e2\u0080\u0094it can double the risk for memory loss<\/em>. In other words, how much you put into your stomach greatly affects your brain.<\/p>\n

I checked out the research to find out just how many extra calories put us at risk\u00e2\u0080\u00a6<\/p>\n

MILD BUT MEASURABLE MEMORY LOSS<\/h4>\n

While past studies have suggested that caloric intake is linked to Alzheimer\u00e2\u0080\u0099s disease, this report was one of the first to examine whether there is a link between high-caloric intake and a less severe form of memory loss called mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is more than just age-related forgetfulness\u00e2\u0080\u0094it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a bit more serious. People with MCI are generally able to function normally, but they might occasionally forget an event from the recent past or a future engagement. People with MCI, for example, may not be able to recall what they had for dinner the night before or they may forget about a planned trip later in the day.<\/p>\n

The study included 1,233 men and women without Alzheimer\u00e2\u0080\u0099s between the ages of 70 and 90. Participants completed a questionnaire, which asked how much of specific foods and drinks they consumed and how often they consumed them, on average. Researchers used that information to calculate the caloric\u00c2\u00a0quantity<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0each person consumed\u00e2\u0080\u0094they did not examine caloric\u00c2\u00a0quality<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0(carbs, fats, protein, etc). Then researchers divided the participants into three equal-sized groups that represented the lowest, moderate and highest calorie intake. Each group contained both men and women. The first group consumed between 600 and 1,525 calories per day (the low-intake group)\u00e2\u0080\u00a6the second group consumed between 1,526 and 2,142 calories per day (the moderate-intake group)\u00e2\u0080\u00a6and the final group consumed more than 2,142 calories per day (the high-intake group). Later, an expert panel reviewed the brain function of the participants and 163 were classified as having MCI.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that people in the high-intake group (those who ate more than 2,142 calories per day) had a significantly higher risk for MCI, with double the risk compared to the low-intake group. The results remained the same even after accounting for gender, body mass index, history of stroke and other risk factors. People in the low-intake and moderate-intake groups did not have a significantly higher risk for MCI.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the findings, I called the lead author, Yonas E. Geda, MD, an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. His research was presented in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

MODERATION IS KEY<\/h4>\n

Dr. Geda explained that although the study didn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t try to answer the question of\u00c2\u00a0why<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0more calories raise the risk for memory loss, one possibility is that consuming more calories increases the body\u00e2\u0080\u0099s production of\u00c2\u00a0reactive oxygen species<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0(molecules containing oxygen). These cause damage to cell structure (oxidative stress), and that can lead to changes in the brain that affect memory.<\/p>\n

So what\u00e2\u0080\u0099s the magic number of calories that you should try to stay under each day?<\/p>\n

You might look at this study and assume that it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s 2,143 calories, but it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s important to remember that the study was looking only at people over the age of 70.\u00c2\u00a0Your<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0age andyour<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0activity level\u00e2\u0080\u0094as well as your gender, height and weight\u00e2\u0080\u0094can all affect how many calories you need, said Dr. Geda, so it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s best to figure out how many you need for energy and then make sure that you don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t go over that maximum. To figure out how many calories you need, follow this link from the Baylor College of Medicine:http:\/\/www.bcm.edu\/cnrc\/caloriesneed.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Yonas E. Geda, MD<\/a>, associate professor, neurology and psychiatry, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carole Jackson, Bottom Line Health If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, \u00e2\u0080\u009cOh man, I ate too much. I shouldn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t have had that second serving,\u00e2\u0080\u009d I would have quite a few nickels! Obviously, excessive eating is no good for your waistline\u00e2\u0080\u00a6neither are all of the associated ailments of obesity. … Continue reading Forget the Second Helping: Link Discovered Between Calories and Memory<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","pmpro-has-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MGMb-he","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}