RESEARCH - Obesity in middle age raises dementia risk: study

May 1, 2005

Obesity in middle age raises dementia risk: study

Last Updated: 2005-04-29 13:00:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters) - If the threat of diabetes, heart disease and stroke

weren't enough incentive for obese people to lose weight, scientists have a

discovered another -- dementia.

Researchers in the United States have shown that obesity, particularly in

women, increases the risk developing dementia later in life. " Obesity in

middle age increases the risk of future dementia, " said Dr. Whitmer,

of Kaiser Permanente, a health care organization in Oakland, California.

She and her colleagues studied more than 10,000 men and women who underwent

detailed health evaluations from 1964 to 1973 when they were 40-45 years

old. After a 27-year follow-up, seven percent of the patients had developed

dementia.

" People who were obese in mid-life were 74-percent more likely to have

dementia, while overweight people were 35 percent more likely to have

dementia compared to those with normal weight, " said Whitmer, whose findings

were reported online by the British Medical Journal on Friday.

The highest risk was for obese women who had a 200-percent greater risk of

dementia than women of normal weight. Obesity was measured by body mass

index (BMI), which is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height

in meters squared. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. Excess weight is

also linked to higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and

psychological problems.

Whitmer and her team said that if their findings are confirmed, treating

obesity in middle age could help to reduce the risk of dementia in later

life. Because of the aging of the global population, dementia is expected to

increase 400 percent in the next 20 years.

Some estimates predict there will be 45 million sufferers worldwide by 2050.

" Failure to contain the present epidemic of obesity may accentuate the

expected age-related increase in dementia, " Whitmer added.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2005.

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

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