| Larger waist in middle age 'increases risk of dementia' | Posted on 27/03/2008 in Industry related health news People with larger waists in their 40s are more like to have dementia when they reach their 70s, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research found that people with the highest amount of abdominal fat were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia than those with the lowest amount of abdominal fat.
They studied 6,583 people aged 40 to 45 in northern California and measured their abdominal fat.
At an average of 36 years later, 16 per cent of the participants had been diagnosed with dementia.
The increased risk of dementia was found to exist regardless of whether the participants were of normal weight overall, overweight, obese and whether or not people had existing health conditions including diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
People who were overweight and had a large belly were 2.3 times more likely to develop dementia than people with a normal weight and belly size.
Those who were both obese and had a large belly were 3.6 times more likely to develop dementia than those of normal weight and belly size.
And people who were overweight or obese but did not have a large abdomen had an 80 per cent increased risk of dementia.
Study author Dr Rachel Whitmer described the findings as "disturbing".
"Research needs to be done to determine what the mechanisms are that link abdominal obesity and dementia," she added.
"Autopsies have shown that changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease may start in young to middle adulthood, and another study showed that high abdominal fat in elderly adults was tied to greater brain atrophy.
"These findings imply that the dangerous effects of abdominal obesity on the brain may start long before the signs of dementia appear."
The study is published in the medical journal Neurology.
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