Study Middle Age Obesity to Dementia

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Study Links Middle Age Obesity to Dementia

 

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By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer 51 minutes ago

 

LONDON - The most convincing research so far suggests

that being fat in your 40s might raise your risk of

developing dementia later in life.

 

 

In a study that followed more than 10,000 Californians

for almost 30 years, researchers found that the fatter

people were, the greater their risk for

Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. The

results were published online Friday by the British

Medical Journal.

 

" This adds another major reason for concern about the

obesity problem and it now unfolds yet another area

where ... we have to say, 'for God's sake, we better

get cracking,' " said Philip James, an obesity expert

who was not connected with the research and who heads

the International Obesity Task Force.

 

The study data showed that roughly 7 out of 100

normal-weight people developed dementia. Among

overweight people, the risk was almost 8 out of 100;

and for obese people, it was 9 out of 100.

 

This latest research comes amid questioning and

confusion in the United States over the dangers of

being overweight. Last week, the U.S. Centers for

Disease Control said a new analysis showed that being

too fat caused far fewer deaths than previous

government estimates. The announcement led to attacks

by critics and restaurant-funded groups who say the

threat of fat has been hyped by the U.S. officials.

 

Funded by the U.S.

National Institutes of Health, the California study

was conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Medical

Foundation. The project followed 10,276 people, in

their early to mid-40s, for an average of 27 years.

They had detailed health checkups from the mid-1960s

to early 1970s.

 

Between 1994 and 2003, dementia was diagnosed in 713,

or about 7 percent, of the study volunteers. The

scientists examined links between dementia and obesity

using two different measurements — body-mass index and

the thickness of skin folds under the shoulder blades

and under the arm.

 

Adjusting for conditions such as diabetes, heart

disease and other factors, the study found a higher

risk of dementia for heavy people. Using the body-mass

index, which measures height and weight to classify

how fat people are, obese people were 74 percent more

likely to develop mind-robbing dementia than normal

weight people. Overweight people were 35 percent more

likely to develop it.

 

The effect was more profound for women than men. Obese

women were twice as likely as women of normal weight

to develop Alzheimer's disease or other types of

dementia, while for men the risk increased by 30

percent.

 

However, when the researchers used skin-fold

thickness, instead of the body-mass index, to measure

obesity, there was no difference between the men and

women; both were up to 70 percent more likely to

develop dementia if they had a thick fold between the

tweezers than if they had a thin fold of skin on the

test. And the thicker the skin fold, the higher the

chance of later dementia, the study found.

 

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the study,

according to James, is that the researchers eliminated

the influence of heart disease, diabetes and other

conditions that might be the real culprits in

dementia.

 

" We really adjusted for everything under the sun that

is related to dementia. We brought in stroke, high

cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease —

everything that has been implicated — and yet we still

found this effect, " said the study's leader, Dr.

Rachel Whitmer, gerontological epidemiologist at the

Kaiser Permanente Medical Foundation. " That suggests

that there's another pathway — it's not just that

being overweight raises the risk of heart disease and

diabetes and that's why these people get dementia. "

 

The study was not able to explain how obesity might

increase the risk of dementia, but does propose

several theories.

 

One is that fat cells are known to produce harmful,

inflammatory chemicals, and there is evidence that

these may cross into the brain.

 

James suggested a dietary lack of the right kinds of

fatty acids, such as those found in fish, might also

be a factor.

 

" It's been shown that the Western societies are short

of fatty acids of this type, " he said, adding that

obese people " will be very deficient in these

long-chain essential fats, which are known to be

fundamental for brain development. "

 

Scientists are studying whether fish oil supplements

can prevent dementia.