Important Relationship Between Heart Health and Brain Health

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation

The relationship between heart health and brain health is gaining much needed understanding and, thankfully, growing public awareness.

It only makes sense that a steady flow of oxygen rich blood to the brain will provide the necessary conditions for optimal brain health. As such, it is not surprising that a new study, published in Circulation, showed a correlation between "cardiac index" and "brain size".

Cardiac index is a measure of how efficiently the heart pumps blood through the body and brain size is known to correlate with cognitive decline and dementia. The suggestion of the research is that we don't necessarily need to wait and see all the necessary steps of a logical progression from poor blood flow to vascular disease to brain disease to declining cognition. Perhaps we can use poor blood flow to predict oncoming issues with brain health which might serve as another important motivation to maintain good cardio-vascular health.

This description of the study in the USA Today, along with accompanying expert testimony is well written. It balances the optimistic scientific advance with the reality about how much more work is necessary to understand the relationship between cardiac index and brain health. It looks promising but it is still too early to make clinical decisions based on what we know.
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