Heart and Brain Health Closely Linked

(August 4, 2010) - Keeping your heart healthy may have the extra benefit of keeping your mind in shape as well. Keep your heart healthy and you may slow down the aging of your brain (Read about "The Brain"), according to a new study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the study, people whose hearts pumped less blood had brains that appeared older than the brains of those whose hearts pumped more blood. Decreased cardiac index, the amount of blood that pumps from the heart in relation to a person's body size, was associated with decreased brain volume using magnetic resonance imaging. (Read about "MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging")

Researchers observed the link even in those participants who did not have cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure or coronary heart disease. (Read about "Congestive Heart Failure" "Coronary Heart Disease") As the brain ages, it begins to atrophy (shrink) and has less volume. The decrease in brain volume is considered a sign of brain aging. More severe brain atrophy occurs in those with dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease. (Read about "Dementia" "Alzheimer's Disease")

"The results are interesting in that they suggest cardiac index and brain health are related," said Angela L. Jefferson, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "The association cannot be attributed to cardiovascular disease because the relationship also was seen when we removed those participants with known cardiovascular disease from our analyses."

In the observational study, which cannot establish cause and effect, researchers examined brain and heart MRI information on 1,504 participants who did not have a history of stroke (Read about "Stroke"), transient ischemic attack or dementia. Participants were 34 to 84 years old and 54 percent were women.

The participants who had the lowest cardiac index, or the least amount of blood pumping from the heart for their body size, showed almost two years more brain aging than the people with the highest cardiac index. The participants in the middle cardiac index group, who had low but still normal levels of blood pumping from the heart, also showed almost two years more brain aging than the people with the highest (or healthiest) cardiac index.