Obesity may curb dementia

Study infers people in middle-age 34 per cent more likely to develop disease.


Ians April 11, 2015
Obese people were 29 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia. PHOTO: STOCK IMAGE

LONDON: A study shows that middle-aged obese people have a significant, nearly 30 per cent, lower risk of developing dementia than people of a healthy weight. The findings, based on medical records of nearly two-million people, contradict results from previous research, which suggested that obesity leads to an increased risk of getting diagnosed with the disorder.

“Our results also open up an intriguing new avenue in the search for protective factors for dementia,” said Professor Stuart Pocock from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “If we can understand why people with a high body mass index (BMI) have a reduced risk of dementia, it’s possible that, further down the line, researchers might be able to use these insights to develop new treatments for dementia,” he noted.

For the study, the researchers analysed the medical records of nearly two million people with an average (median) age of 55 years at the start of the study period and just within the range usually classed as overweight. During an average (median) of nine years follow-up, nearly 50,000 people were diagnosed with dementia.

People, who were underweight in the middle age, were 34 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those of a healthy weight. As participants’ BMI at middle age increased, the risk of dementia reduced, with very obese people 29 per cent less likely to get dementia than those in the normal weight range, the researchers inferred.

“If increased weight in mid-life is protective against dementia, the reasons for this inverse association are unclear at present. Many different issues related to diet, exercise, frailty, genetic factors, and weight change could play a part,” noted the study’s lead author, Nawab Qizilbash, from Oxon Epidemiology, a London/Madrid-based clinical research organisation. The research was published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2015.

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