This common condition might be damaging your brain every day

The hidden danger to that belly that no one is warning you about

Your doctor, your kids, your spouse…just about everyone has probably nagged you about losing those love handles or that spare tire.

They throw out concerns about your heart, diabetes, blah, blah, blah…

But it turns out there is another lurking threat that no one is talking about. Belly fat can lead to full-fledged dementia.

Shocking, I know. But there is a clear and definite connection between carrying extra fat around your waist and losing your mind.

R-alpha dog

When I first stumbled on this belly fat-dementia link, researchers were still mystified. How could a little extra padding around the stomach affect your brain? All they knew for sure is that it looked like something significant was at work.

Turns out, it all hinges on just one type of protein with this unusual name: PPARalpha.

Researchers have found that the memory center of the brain (the hippocampus) requires PPARalpha to process memory.

But the liver uses the same protein to burn belly fat. That means that extra belly fat forces the liver to work harder, requiring more and more PPARalpha.

When the protein runs low, the liver becomes a desperate thief. It raids other parts of the body to get more of the protein. Eventually, it literally steals PPARalpha from your hippocampus.

In time, the PPARalpha-starved hippocampus starts to shrink. Learning becomes more difficult. Memory fails. And eventually, dementia symptoms begin.

If this new risk has you ready to act, you can read here about a simple way to help you trim that belly fat. And how does it do that? Easy. It increases your PPARalpha.

Sources:
“Your Liver May Be ‘Eating’ Your Brain” Cristopher Wanjek, Live Science, 10/15/13, livescience.com