A new study on older people showed that those who have poor thinking skills and lack the ability to reason out and solve problems well could face a greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
The study, which appeared in the journal Neurology, involved nearly 4,000 participants who are 75 years old in average, don't have a history of heart diseases like stroke or heart attack, and do not have dementia, as reported in HealthDay.
However, the participants all had a history of heart disease or have high risk of developing heart disease due to diabetes, hypertension, or smoking.
The participants were given four tests to assess the level of their thinking skills at the start of the study. They were then grouped into three based on their results: low, medium or high.
European researchers from Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands, led by by Dr. Benham Sabayan, then followed their subjects for three years on average to see who among them have developed stroke or heart attack.
During those years of tracking, 375 occurrences of heart attacks and 155 strokes were recorded.
Based on the test results, those who scored low in their thinking skills have an 85 percent higher chance of developing a heart attack compared to people who scored high.
Of the 1,309 participants who had low scores, 176 of them experienced heart attacks. In contrast, of 1,308 high scorers, only 93 had heart attacks.
For strokes, those who scored low had 51 percent increased risk of developing strokes. They had 69 strokes compared to 48 stroke occurrences in high-scoring people.
According to Sabayan, the results are proof that the function of the brain and heart are more closely linked to each other than initially thought.
Sabayan also added that the results do not imply "immediate clinical translation," but the team suggested that testing brain functions should be included in the assessment for risk of heart disease.
