A medical study has revealed that people, who have sluggish hearts, are more likely to lose brain volume at an early age. This can also significantly increase the risk of dementia.

Researchers analyzed brain and heart MRI data of 1,504 patients who were not suffering from any neurological disease and were healthy.

All these people were aged between 34 and 84 years and half of these were women. They were divided into three groups according to the pumping ability or cardiac index of their hearts. People whose hearts pumped blood slowly showed more brain damage as compared to people who had comparatively healthy hearts.

Experts point that as the brain starts to age, it shrinks or decreases in size and this is considered a sin of brain aging. People who have severe brain damage develop problems like dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The study has established that there is a close link between heart and brain health. It was also found that people with weakest hearts also had the smallest brain volume.

Only 7% of the people had heart disease while nearly 30% of the people had hearts with slow cardiac index. Even though, these people were not sick, they were more likely to suffer from cognitive problems in the future.

Experts stress that more research is needed to closely understand the link between both these body organs.