Vita gazette – Parkinson’s, weight alterations can increase the risk of cognitive deficits. According to the latest research, those who lost pounds had a faster cognitive decline than those who gained weight, but in both cases the test scores were worse than those who had no weight changes. These findings highlight the potential importance of weight management in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.

Weight change in the early stages of Parkinson’s may be related to changes in thinking skills. People who gain or lose weight soon after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease may be more likely to have changes in their thinking skills than people who maintain their weight, according to a new study. Korean researchers at Seoul University, led by Jin-Sun Jun, have published the results of their Parkinson’s disease experiments in Neurology.

The study involved 358 people who were recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and who had not yet started taking Parkinson’s medications. They had an average age of 61 and had been diagnosed on average two years earlier. They were compared with 174 people who did not have Parkinson’s disease.

Weight gain or loss was defined as a greater than 3% change in body weight during the first year of the study. Weight maintenance was defined as no change or no more than 3% change. A total of 98 people had weight loss, 59 had weight gain, and 201 maintained their weight. All underwent neuropsychological tests, which were then repeated every year to evaluate the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s, such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances.

It is worse to lose weight

Those who lost weight had a more rapid cognitive decline than those who gained weight, but in both cases test scores were worse than those with no weight changes, especially in verbal fluency which is an indication of the integrity of executive functions, i.e., ability to complete a task, typically impaired in this disease. If early weight change turns out to be a reliable predictive marker of cognitive decline, this will crown years of research that has tried to understand why only some patients have this dementia conversion.

Patients often present with mild cognitive impairment with tremor. Therefore, these changes should be considered, as will be the risk of cognitive deficits with changes in PD-MCI, which is short for Parkinson’s disease. According to the PACOs study conducted by the University of Catania with that of Palermo – comments Professor Mario Zappia, president of the Limpe-Dismov Academy for Parkinson’s and movement disorders -, PD-MCI is found in 40% of cases and the risk increases with increasing age and motor impairment of the patient».

PD-MCI afflicts 30-40% of patients, especially in the early stages, while in the late stages about a third of patients are affected by dementia-Parkinson, a more serious form of cognitive decline, surpassed only by the so-called Lewy dementia, still incurable. Alzheimer’s disease drugs can be used against dementia-Parkinson, but they are options to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with a careful balance of risks and benefits. We still do not know how to curb PD-MCI effectively – concludes Zappia -, but the optimization of anti-Parkinsonian therapies, a healthy diet, moderate and regular physical activity, an emotionally and intellectually stimulating environment improve cognition, also acting on mood and overall quality of life of the patient. Having a marker that warns you of conversion risk early can help us implement these countermeasures right away.