The fat you can’t see could be shrinking your brain

Where your body stores fat may matter just as much as how much you carry—especially for your brain. Using advanced MRI scans and data from nearly 26,000 people, researchers identified two surprising fat patterns tied to faster brain aging, cognitive decline, and higher neurological disease risk. One involves unusually high fat buildup in the pancreas, even without much liver fat, while the other—often called “skinny fat”—affects people who don’t appear severely obese but carry excess fat relative to muscle.