Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comLink found between piling on pounds and mental decline
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Boy, is this a surprise!
Oops, fatism.
Shame on me.
Excess weight limits mobility and lessens the probability of a regular, rigorous exercise regimen.
Since both diet and exercise have been shown to be positively related to improved mental acuity for seniors, it is not surprising that brain functions would suffer with excess weight because rigorous regular exercise is also often limited.
Yeah. And people who spend hours working out are wasting hours in which they could be reading or otherwise developing their minds. Hence, the stereotype of the "dumb jock." Nice try. But maybe you should get off the jogging trail and think about this one a little bit more.
I thought this was proven last year with the "Most Obese States" and "Most Religious States" rankings.
Mississippi and Alabama topped both lists.
Life is like a schoolyard no matter how old you are. Pick, pick, pick on the fat people -- and anyone else the other kids don't like or who is simply different. This attitude has been brewing for years because someone had to concieve the idea for doing this sort of study. And this person likely hates fat people or is fat and hates himself or herself.
Gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins. This bias is deeply rooted. In the not so distant past, someone who was overweight was obviously consuming more than their share of scarce resources. They were seen as privileged since they ate more and did less physical labor than the average person.
You need to look beyond what is directly in front of you to understand the world.
Gosh Ray, I wonder what scientific discoveries will come along to help stupid people like you who can't shed pounds to get smarter??? Ooops....stupidism. Sorry, no apology is forthcoming.
I have always found that the major reason women lose brain power is how much they actually use their brains. Women that have worked and received outside stimuli are much more effective communicators and learners of new things than those who stayed at home and rarely traveled. You have to train your brain for it to work properly. I think this study was largely just some docs trying to get a paper published. It's of little consequence.
How incredibly insulting; to suggest that women who choose not to work outside the home are lacking in mental capacity or are ineffective communicators solely because they chose not to work outside of the home. Working in the home, whether raising children and regardless of gender, is at least as mentally challenging, if not more, than your standard office job. You suggest that stimuli is something that is passively "received" when this couldn't be further from the truth. We are all responsible for engaging with the world around us and seeking out opportunities to challenge our intellect. Women at home can and do do this every bit as successfully as women in the workplace. Welcome to the 21st century.
dp have you ever worked out in the public? I'm not saying that housewives aren't great. I am saying that if you've never worked then you have a greater chance of remaining stagnant. I've worked with older women for years in insurance and billing. I can spot a farmwife a mile away. They have no clue as to how companies work and how the world works. They have to have everything explained to them over and over. They just don't get it because they are used to having companies that they do business with figure things out for them. Many are completely lost after their husbands die. When they have to think for themselves after the deaths of their husbands and figure things out for themselves, they get completely bamboozled. I think it is partly why these women are preyed upon by unscrupulous people.
From what I can see, this is a wholly inadequate and flawed study. For example, depression can depress cognative skills, and depression is often associated with excess weight. Is it the effect of the weight they are measuring, or the depression?
I agree that this study is flawed or they did a poor job and reporting the studies structure. There are a lot of compounding variables that could add to weight gain, were the study groups controled? They also didn't really prove which came first, a decline in mental status or the weight gain.
Well this explains so much. Unbelieveable. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa Have they tested men too? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Gee, you think maybe a PhD would be familiar with something called a "confounder"? It's more likely that the excess weight just reduces blood flow to the brain, you only have one heart and it can only do so much.
A very wise, older, obese friend of mine told me many years ago...."When you age, whether or not you put on weight, as I have, you just reach a point where it just isn't that important to let everyone you know know everything you know. You're just as smart as you always were, and hopefully you are still learning...you just don't give a damn about proving everything anymore. And....you don't have to....so just live and enjoy."
As to her being "fat"...her whole family was from eastern Europe and were all short and stocky. They all seemed to be smart, but they weren't out there trying to prove every point.
If this is so how come so many of my older thin female friends suffer from dementia?
Bullsh-t! As with most of these health discoveries, there will probably be another study next week contradicting this one. Meanwhile, everyone is given one more reason to look down on fat women. Not only are they lazy - they're stupid, too!
Where does all of this anger come from? This is a scientific study - agree with it or not. It is not a personal indictment of you.
fat and stupid. hmm used to be an insult now its science.
How was the cause and effect relationship established? Could it not be the reverse, i.e. mental decline led to weight gain? Significant amounts of information lacking.
Your assessment is probably more correct than the researchers. It's quite common for depression to set in amongst the elderly which in turn makes them less mobile and prone to gain weight.
I'm a 62 year old woman, who's packed on about 10 lbs. in recent years and can assure the researchers except for the occassional misplacing of my car keys, neither my memory nor my intelligence levels have dropped. My mind and body are more active now then they were 25 years ago. If anything, my curiosity about life and learning has increased. What an insulting article! I'm tired of reading about women who cannot snare a man if they're overweight, about women who become less attractive as they get older, etc., etc. Give us articles about real women who are empowered and make positive decisions for themselves or their husbands, children and who are leaving an impact on their loved ones and community.
I read the article twice through, and don't understand -- did they test these women at a lesser weight first, and again after they had gained weight, to see the "decline?" Or were they just judging overweight women against some unspecified norm of intelligence? Or am I just too fat to get it?
Well, take one look at rush limbaugh...............
Just a little observation I made... although I agree that a well balanced diet is important to overall health, I am not sure if the study might be skewed. If one were to evaluate mental acuity versus BMI, it should be measured on the same subjects over a period of time. Socio-economic factors might play a role in diet choices as well as IQ. Do not interpret this to mean that people in a lower economic bracket always fall in a lower IQ bracket. I do believe, however, that multi-generational families utilizing public assistance either cannot always afford to make healthy choices and poor choices might be a learned behavior from older generations. Once again, I will admit that good choices will benefit a person physically and mentally because when you feel good, everything works better.
It would be interesting to see if their results rang true over a span of say 20 years, starting around the age of 30 and continuing on to the age of 50.
so fat women are stupid but not all stupid women are fat-makes sense
I would prefer to see a study over time rather than just comparing weight to these criteria. Is a woman's cognitive ability going down as she gains weight, or are heavier women generally weaker in these areas due to other factors. For example the same conditions that might lead to a woman being obese, might also impact these other criteria. Socio-Economics - less income can lead to less healthy food choices and as a result less nutrients for brain development.
I agree that the cause and effect may not be as direct as they say. It's like saying people who are more wealthy have better health care, so if you want to be wealthy buy more health care. Or it's like saying people who are less accident prone have more brain function, so if you want to be smarter then have fewer accidents.
You may want to read the article on CNN regarding this study. Turns out that all the glitters on MSNBC is not gold. The study apparently was quite a bit more specific about what type of mental decline occured and where the fat was deposited. I had suspected that something was missing (see earlier post). It appears that MSNBC has gone tabloid on us. Shame on MSNBC.
fat and stupid will always be fat and stupid. its a classic
I graduated from a top research school in this country, and a LOT is missing in this story. I missed any reference to statistical significance. Also, if a person's BMI decreased, would their mental status then improve? How exactly was weight shown to be the cause of the mental decline? Could it be that the weight increase was the result of the mental decline rather than the other way around? It appears to me that, from the information given, it was hard to conclude very much from this study at all except that there might be some kind of correlation between BMI and mental status.
Was the first test taken at 65 and the next at 79? OR was only one test taken? If so how do you make a comparison? Also, all brains degenerate with age and you haven't taken into account bone sructure. I am now 5.5 ( was 5.7) wheigh 138 lbs ( beforeI fluctuated between 118 and 124lbs) But have a light bone structure, so I look fat now. I'm 73 yrs old and maybe I am going gaga. but I think your article was not very clear.
As people age, the dumber you are the less you tend to look after your looks and especially your weight, the smarter you are the more you tend to look after your looks and especially your weight. I beleive the conclusions of the studies are wrong. Increasing weight does not result in lowered mental ability in our aged, lowered mental ability results in increasing weight in our age.