New research, funded by our Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, has found that poor cardiovascular health in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood may contribute to brain structure changes linked to dementia.
The paper: “Association of early life cardiovascular risk factors with grey matter structure in young adults in the United Kingdom: the ALSPAC study” published recently in Science Direct, shows a link between brain structural changes with body mass index, blood pressure and physical activity in adolescence and young adulthood.
These links were particularly evident in brain regions that are known to be affected in dementia in old age, suggesting that very early life changes in the developing brain may contribute to later cognitive decline.
Participants were selected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK-based prospective cohort of young people.
