In the past few days you may have come across headlines claiming that weight loss can improve memory. If so, you may be wondering what to make of this.
Let’s take a brief look at the study at the origin of these articles. Participants were 109 bariatric surgery patients and 41 obese people (controls) who had not undergone surgery. Bariatric surgery refers mostly to gastric bypass surgery, which creates a smaller stomach and bypasses part of the small intestine. The bariatric patients were enrolled in the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery project conducted, among others, by researchers at Kent State university and Columbia University.
The memory of the 150 participants was assessed before the surgery as well as 12 weeks after. Results showed that the memory of the surgery patients had improved whereas the memory of the obese controls had declined. [Read more…] about Can weight loss boost memory?