Slow brain activity may indicate increased risk of heart attack or stroke, Dutch researchers say today.
A study of apparently healthy 75-year-olds found that those with the least active brains were 85% more likely than the most mentally active to suffer a heart attack in the following three years.
The findings may show how cardiovascular disease affects the brain. They could also reflect a lack of willingness to adopt healthy lifestyles among those with poor problem-solving and planning skills.
The researchers tested the volunteers’ "executive function" – the skills used to reason, problem solve and plan.
Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, studied nearly 4,000 people with no history of heart attack or stroke and divided them into three equal groups based on their mental skills.
Some 176 of those in the least mentally agile group had heart attacks within three years compared with 93 of those in the most intelligent group.
The findings are reported in the journal Neurology today and a part of the analysis of a study of statin treatments, the PROSPER trial.
Researcher Dr Behnam Sabayan said: "Worse brain functioning in particular in executive function could reflect disease of the brain vascular supply, which in turn would predict, as it did, a higher likelihood of stroke. And, since blood vessel disease in the brain is closely related to blood vessel disease in the heart, that’s why low test scores also predicted a greater risk of heart attacks.
“We acknowledge that even though the results were statistically significant, the risks were small.”
Neurology 5 August 2015
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