Losing weight boosts memory in older women

Weight loss could result in improved memory in older, overweight women, a new small study has suggested.

Additionally, the study also showed that the women's brain activity actually changes in the regions of the brain vital for memory tasks after weight loss, the Huffington Post reported.

Lead author Andreas Pettersson, M.D., a Ph.D. student at Umea University in Sweden, said in a statement that their findings suggest that obesity-associated impairments in memory function are reversible, adding incentive for weight loss.

The researchers studied 20 overweight, post-menopausal women with an average age of 61, and randomly assigned them to one of two healthy diets for six months.

They measured their body mass index (BMI) before and after the diet, and tested their episodic memory by making them remember unknown pairs of faces and names, then recall which letter each person's name began with.

They found that memory performance got a boost after weight loss, and their brain scans confirmed they had grown more adept at storing and recalling memories.