How can your bones tell you about your brain health?
Johns Hopkins researchers knew that bone and brain health could deteriorate with age. They wondered if the health of one might provide clues as to how quickly the other would decline. This could be a way to detect brain problems earlier and more easily.
Part of the puzzle lies in white matter: millions of nerve fibers that act like cables sending electrical messages between regions of the brain.
White matter naturally degrades with age, which is associated with vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and small vessel diseases of the brain, which can cause strokes.
Researchers have discovered that a routine scan of a completely different part of the body could give us clues about how quickly our white matter – and our cognition – might deteriorate in the future.
The researchers aimed to relate white matter findings to bone density, something that can be determined by analyzing the results of a routine CT scan. In contrast, researchers have used brain MRIs much less systematically.
Researchers looked at people who underwent non-contrast chest CT, multimodal brain MRI and cognitive testing. They found that lower bone density was associated with faster decline in three areas.
First, they looked at the data from these MRI scans. They found that the lower the bone density of the spine, the lower the integrity of white matter fibers as well, particularly in an area responsible for cognition and executive function (planning, organizing, emotional regulation).
They also found that lower bone density was associated with a faster accumulation of white matter hyperintensities – areas of damaged or abnormal white matter that appear as bright spots on MRI.
These abnormalities become more common with age and are associated with damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, cognitive decline, and increased risk of dementia.
The final conclusion focused on the cognitive test data. People with lower bone density declined more quickly on cognitive tests. This involved looking at things like memory, attention and information processing speed.
Why it matters
One of the most important possibilities raised by the research is that a test a patient is already undergoing for an entirely different reason could one day help identify people at greater risk of accelerated brain aging.
“Chest CT scan is performed for lung cancer screening, calcium assessment, nodule tracking, and many other indications,” said author Dr. Sara Momtazmanesh. “These analyzes could provide an opportunistic measure of thoracic spine bone density associated with loss of cognitive function. »
To be clear, decreased bone density does not cause cognitive decline, the authors say. The importance of this research is that low bone density could be a marker of broader biological aging, with some of the same underlying processes potentially affecting both bone and the brain. This includes things like inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and vascular problems.
Identifying people at risk of accelerated cognitive decline earlier could give doctors more time to address and treat risk factors within the patient’s control, such as physical inactivity, high blood pressure and diabetes, and monitor them more closely for changes.
And if further testing ultimately reveals a disease such as Alzheimer’s, early diagnosis becomes increasingly important. New Alzheimer’s drugs may slow progression in some people with early-stage disease.
Gn Health
