Health problems in teens linked with worse cognitive skills
Teens with metabolic syndrome — a set of health conditions linked with the development of heart disease and diabetes — perform worse in school than their healthier counterparts, according to a new study.
Researchers studied 111 adolescents, including 49 with metabolic syndrome and 62 without, and found that those with the condition performed 5 to 15 percent worse on tests of their academic abilities.
Additionally, brain scans showed kids with metabolic syndrome had smaller hippocampuses, the part of the brain involved inlearning and forming memories.
While much research has linked metabolic syndrome to health problems later in life, “this paper demonstrates is there is something going on in their brains today, not 20 years from now,” said study researcher Dr. Antonio Convit, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at the NYU School of Medicine.
“They’re performing in the normal range, they’re just not performing to their full potential,” Convit said.
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