A newly released study reveals that 13% of healthy adults have abnormalities in their brains without even knowing it, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study analyzed the MRI scans of 2,000 healthy individuals with an average age of 63 with no signs of brain problems. It found that more than 7 percent showed evidence of a brain clot, but the clots were too small to produce symptoms and seemed to be more common with age.
Nearly 2 percent had a brain aneurysm, which is a bulge in a blood vessel that can burst if it becomes too big, causing a stroke. But 32 of the 35 aneurysms were so small the researchers did not suggest follow-up medical treatment.
What do the results tell us? Well, to start off with, just because a head CT or MRI shows an abnormality there needs to be a clinical assessment before you let your favorite neurosurgeon drill a hole in your skull in order to cut on your brain!
As we have said before, “Be an Informed Consumer of Health Care.”