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Latest Diet & Weight Management News<\/h3>\n
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![\"News](\"https:\/\/media.healthday.com\/Images\/icimages\/fat_06141.jpg\"\/)
By Steven Reinberg<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
THURSDAY, June 25, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
If you’ve been looking for a good reason to slim down, consider this: Being obese<\/a> at midlife appears to increase your odds for dementia<\/a>.<\/p>\n That’s the takeaway from a large study just published by British researchers, and it echoes similar findings published in December.<\/p>\n Dorina Cadar, lead researcher on the new study, said the goal is to identify risk factors that are influenced by lifestyle so steps can be taken to prevent mental decline.<\/p>\n “We hope that a substantial portion, but admittedly not all, of dementia<\/a> cases can be prevented through public health interventions,” she said. Cadar is a senior research fellow at University College London.<\/p>\n Her team found that people who are obese<\/a> at midlife have a 31% higher risk for dementia<\/a> than middle-aged people whose weight is normal — and the risk is especially high for women.<\/p>\n The good news: Losing weight may significantly lower the odds, the researchers said.<\/p>\n For the study, Cadar and her colleagues analyzed data from nearly 6,600 people aged 50 and older who were part of a British study on aging<\/a>. The researchers used three sources to ascertain dementia<\/a>: doctor diagnosis, informant reports and hospital statistics.<\/p>\n While obesity<\/a> was a risk for both men and women, the risk of dementia<\/a> was even higher for women with abdominal obesity<\/a> — a condition measured by their waist size. Over an average follow-up of 11 years, they were 39% more likely to develop dementia<\/a>, the study found.<\/p>\n This higher risk was independent of other factors, such as age, education, marital status, smoking<\/a>, genetics, diabetes<\/a> and high blood pressure<\/a>. No association between abdominal obesity and dementia was found among men, the study authors said.<\/p>\n But when the researchers considered both weight and waist size together, obese men and women alike had 28% higher odds of developing dementia.<\/p>\n A study published in December of women only uncovered similar risks.<\/p>\n Dr. Sam Gandy, associate director of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease<\/a> Research Center in New York City, reviewed the new findings.<\/p>\n “This new paper is entirely consistent with both the field in general and with our own work in particular,” he said.<\/p>\n Gandy said proteins implicated in inflammation, cardiovascular disease<\/a> and type 2 diabetes<\/a> — all of which are risk factors for Alzheimer’s<\/a> — may contribute to the links between obesity and dementia.<\/p>\n Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer’s<\/a> Association, said links between underlying causes of chronic physical conditions and dementia are well known.<\/p>\n “The association between heart<\/a> health risk factors — such as diabetes<\/a>, obesity and high blood pressure<\/a> — and cognitive decline and dementia is well established in Alzheimer’s<\/a> research,” Fargo said.<\/p>\n These new findings add to the overall body of evidence that links obesity to higher dementia risk, he noted. The sex-based differences identified in the latest study are intriguing, Fargo said. But, “it’s too early to know whether this finding is valid based on just one study,” he explained.<\/p>\n The Alzheimer’s<\/a> Association is running<\/a> a two-year clinical trial to see if healthy lifestyle interventions that target risk factors can protect cognitive function in a diverse group of older adults.<\/p>\n “What’s really interesting is the possibility that living more healthfully can reduce dementia risk,” Fargo said.<\/p>\n The latest findings were published online June 23 in the International Journal of Epidemiology<\/i>.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
Copyright \u00a9 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
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