Does your brain age match your chronological age?

As you age, you lose muscle and gain visceral fat around your organs. Scientists say your visceral fat to muscle ratio may reveal clues about brain health.

As you age, you gradually lose muscle mass and gain visceral body fat, a type of fat deep inside your body that surrounds your heart, kidneys and other organs. Now, scientists say the ratio of visceral fat to muscle can uncover clues about your brain health.

People with higher muscle mass and a lower visceral fat-to-muscle ratio tend to have younger brains, according to research being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

“We know that the age of a person, in terms of their appearance, might not match with their chronological age,” said senior study author Dr. Cyrus Raji. “Turns out, the age of their organs might not match their chronological age either.”

One reason the findings are so important is because chronological age — and therefore an aging brain — is “by far” the top risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, said Raji, an associate professor of radiology and neurology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“Risk of disease crosses organ systems,” Raji said. “Disease doesn’t just neatly respect the anatomical boundaries of one organ system.”