Older people have a greater risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) if they indulge in overeating, a new study suggests. According to MedPage Today, people age 70 or older who consume more than 2,142 kilocalories per day have nearly twice the risk of developing memory problems as compared to those eating fewer than 1,526 kilocalories daily.
“The higher the amount of calories consumed each day, the higher the risk of MCI,’ study leader Yonas Geda of the Mayo Clinic said in summation.
For the study, Geda and colleagues asked a random sample of more than 1,000 study participants in the Mayo Clinic’s Study of Aging to fill out a food frequency questionnaire for a year preceding an interview. The study participants ranged in age from 70 to 89, and included 1,070 cognitively normal people and 163 with MCI.
Afterward, participants were divided into three groups based on their daily caloric intake. The first group ate between 600 and 1,526 kilocalories per day; the middle group ate from 1,526 to 2,142.5 kilocalories per day; and the third group ate 2,142.5 to 6,000 kilocalories per day. The results were then adjusted for variables like age, sex, education, disease and body mass index.
Overall, energy consumption in the third group was found to be statistically significant when predicting risk of MCI.
Geda says the team’s study ought to encourage people to live healthier lives in interest of their own mental fitness.
“Cutting calories and eating food that make up a healthy diet may be a simpler way to prevent memory loss as we age,” Geda said.
MCI is not categorized as dementia. Patients who have mild cognitive impairment instead show cognitive deficits that often precede the development of diseases like Alzheimer’s, MedPage Today said.
