This Organ Could Predict Memory Loss and It's Not The Brain

What if the secret to saving your memory wasn’t hidden in a high-tech lab, but pumping just beneath your ribcage? For decades, researchers have tried to unravel the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease, hoping to predict who’s most at risk. But a new, long-term study has uncovered an unexpected clue—one that ties the fate of your brain not to your genes, but to the strength of your heart. Could your heartbeat be the ticking clock that predicts your cognitive future?

Key Takeaways

Cardiovascular risk is strongly linked to memory decline.
Individuals with poor heart health experienced more rapid deterioration in memory and cognitive speed over 21 years.
Weaker heart function can shrink the brain.
Reduced blood flow affects the hippocampus and gray matter, damaging memory-related structures and accelerating brain shrinkage.
You can reverse the risk—even late in life.
Improvements in heart health through exercise and diet significantly lower dementia risk, even for those who start late.

Is Heart Health the Secret Key to Preventing Alzheimer’s?

Because the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease is so frightening, it’s natural to wonder about your chances of developing this brain-destroying condition – and what you can do about reducing your risk. It turns out that as researchers focus on uncovering physical factors that influence brain health and Alzheimer’s risk, they’re also finding that those factors are not set in stone. New research confirms what we’ve often reported in this newsletter – that to a large degree, you can take the fate of your brain into your own hands and whittle down the odds that your mental powers will dim as you get older. One of the latest studies in this area reveals specific ways that your lifestyle influences your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers examined 21 years of health information gathered on 1,588 people who were taking part in research for the Rush Memory and Aging Project. These people had MRI scans of their brains performed periodically, they underwent a wide range of blood tests and other medical analyses, and they took yearly quizzes to measure memory recall and other cognitive abilities. As part of the research, the scientists compiled what is called a “Framingham General Cardiovascular Risk Score” for every participant in the study. This algorithm is derived from the long-term Framingham study of heart health. This method of gauging risk takes into account a person’s age, gender, whether they smoke, their blood pressure, the hypertension medication they may be taking, whether or not they have diabetes, and other factors affecting whether they’ll have a heart attack or some other cardiovascular problem in the future.

Your Heart Health is Related to Your Memory Health

When researchers looked at how people’s cognitive abilities fared over the years, they found that those who had the highest risk of cardiovascular problems – and the worst Cardiovascular Risk Scores – had the greatest loss in episodic memory, working memory and perceptual speed over the two decades of this study. Brain scans showed that each high risk person also tended to have a smaller hippocampus (a memory center in the brain), less gray matter (involved in hearing, memory, emotions and speech), as well as more damage to white matter (the part of the brain that contains nerve fibers involved in learning.)¹ Besides all that, the high-risk people had smaller brains overall – and brain shrinkage is a bad omen for brain health.

Weaker Heart, Weaker Memory

The research confirms other studies at Vanderbilt University that revealed how your heart’s pumping power is directly linked to your memory function. These scientists found that if your heart weakens even a little bit, that impaired heart pumping function results in memory loss and other cognitive complications.² The Vanderbilt study involved about 300 people aged 30 to 92 and measured their heart’s global longitudinal strain, a sensitive measurement that can reveal even minor weakening of the heart. The Vanderbilt scientists theorized that when the heart pumps less blood to the brain, it compromises the blood-brain barrier – permitting destructive substances to bypass this protective shield. As a result, more toxins invade brain tissue and damage the brain’s neurons. In addition, the reduced blood flow to the brain may limit the proteins available to maintain neuronal synapses that tie together the neural networks necessary for healthy memory function. Plus, the study showed that, in particular, less blood flow to the brain impacts the temporal lobes – brain areas crucial for understanding speech and the ability to carry on conversations.

What These Studies Mean

If you want your brain to be healthy, you need to make your heart healthy. For a healthy heart you need consistent exercise and a diet filled with fruits and vegetables and very little processed food. Reassuringly, it’s never too late to start improving your cardiovascular system. For instance, a 20-year study in Norway showed that folks with questionable cardiovascular fitness who improved their heart health over the years enjoyed a reduced risk of developing dementia and memory problems comparable to the people who started the study with good cardiovascular health and maintained it throughout the research.³ So even if you haven’t been off the couch in years, and your relationship with healthy food has only grown worse due to the coronavirus pandemic, you can still get moving toward a stronger heart and brain. Start today, it’s worth the effort!

Summary

Recent research sheds new light on how heart health plays a critical role in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease risk. Over a span of 21 years, researchers analyzed cognitive data, MRI scans, and cardiovascular health in more than 1,500 individuals. They found that those with higher cardiovascular risk scores suffered greater memory loss and had smaller, more damaged brains. Additional findings showed that even small decreases in heart function could reduce blood flow to the brain, compromising the blood-brain barrier and allowing toxins to harm neurons. Encouragingly, lifestyle changes such as exercise and diet improvements were shown to significantly reduce cognitive decline, even when adopted later in life.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is heart health connected to memory loss?

Reduced heart function lowers blood flow to the brain, leading to neuron damage, brain shrinkage, and impaired memory.

What is the Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Score?

It’s an algorithm used to estimate cardiovascular risk based on factors like age, blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes.

Can improving heart health reverse brain aging?

While it can't reverse damage, it can significantly slow cognitive decline and reduce dementia risk, even if changes are made later in life.

What kind of exercise helps both the heart and brain?

Moderate, consistent aerobic exercise—like walking, swimming, or cycling—has been shown to benefit both heart and cognitive health.

Is it ever too late to improve your brain health through lifestyle?

No. Studies show that people who improve their heart health later in life can still enjoy cognitive benefits and lower dementia risk.

Meet
The Expert:

Susan Clark is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated journalist and author who has written about nutrition, health, and wellness for 27 years. She has developed content for articles, reports, books, videos, and television news segments featuring some of today’s top alternative and integrative doctors. She earned a bachelor of science in broadcast journalism from Texas Christian University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons, and numerous pets.

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