Fat’s Location in the Body Could Speed Up Brain Aging, New Study Finds

A large UK Biobank study published in Nature Mental Health (2025) links where fat sits on the body to brain aging: visceral fat around organs is directly associated with faster brain aging and white-matter damage, while fat in arms/legs/trunk shows distinct brain-system effects. Inflammation and insulin-glucose pathways are suspected mediators. The findings suggest reducing visceral fat could help prevent neurodegenerative disease, but the study is observational and not causal.