Obesity increases the risk of developing dementia, according to the latest research from the University College London.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association:
Dementia is not a specific disease. It’s an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities.
In the new study, the researchers found that those who had a high body mass index were more likely to develop dementia than those with a normal weight.
The study looked at data from 1.3 million adults living in the United States and Europe.
“The BMI-dementia association observed in longitudinal population studies, such as ours, is actually attributable to two processes,” said lead author of the study, Professor Mika Kivimäki (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health). “One is an adverse effect of excess body fat on dementia risk. The other is weight loss due to pre-clinical dementia. For this reason, people who develop dementia may have a higher-than-average body mass index some 20 years before dementia onset, but close to overt dementia have a lower BMI than those who remain healthy.”
“The new study confirms both the adverse effect of obesity as well as weight loss caused by metabolic changes during the pre-dementia stage.”
The study abstract reported the following results and stats:
The study showing that obesity increases the risk of developing dementia was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
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1. “Obesity Increases Dementia Risk.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171130133812.htm.
2. “Body Mass Index and Risk of Dementia: Analysis of Individual-Level Data from 1.3 Million Individuals.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Alzheimer’s Association, http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(17)33811-6/fulltext.
