In recent years, medical science has discovered a growing list of health issues that are associated with a person’s body type. It seems the “apple” type, where excess weight is situated in the abdominal area, raises the most concerns. Body type is surely genetic but there are many lifestyle choices that can minimize risk, regardless of which body type a person inherits.

Now it seems age-related dementia is also associated with the size of one’s waist during midlife. What makes the study truly disturbing is the fact that about half the adult population of the United States carries an unhealthy amount of fat in the abdominal area.

A research team, led by Rachel A. Whitmer, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, involved 6,583 northern Californians, 40 to 45 years of age, who had measured their abdominal fat. Now, 36 years later, the incidence of dementia was compared to the measure of abdominal fat.

Sixteen percent of the study participants had developed dementia. Those with the most abdominal fat were diagnosed almost three times more than the leanest of the study participants.

The likelihood of developing dementia later in life grows in proportion to the waistline. When compared to people of healthy weight and waistline, overweight people with a large belly are at 2.3 times greater risk of developing dementia. Obesity, with a large belly, increases the risk by 3.6 times. Even with weight distributed more evenly throughout the body, overweight and obese people risk an 80% increase in the likelihood of developing dementia.

Who is most prone to abdominal obesity? Women, ethnic minorities, cigarette smokers, diabetics, anyone with high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels, and people who did not graduate from high school.

It is unclear at this time what, exactly, is the link between abdominal fat and dementia but researchers suggest the complexities of human behaviors that jeopardize health in general. Being overweight may be just another element in an unhealthy lifestyle, which also takes a toll on the function of the brain.

Autopsies done on people in early and middle adulthood have revealed changes in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. They also reveal that a large degree of abdominal body fat in the elderly is closely linked to a larger degree of brain atrophy. Whitmer suggests the damage to the brain that causes dementia in one’s 70s may have started long before evidence of mental decline began.

Source: American Academy of Neurology