Dementia-A risk associated with belly fat
It has been found that around 10 million American baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime, while another study found that more than 20 percent of seniors have memory loss not classified as dementia.
According to a new study,it has been found that people in their 40s with big belly have a higher risk of dementia when they reach their 70s. In such a study, researchers looked specifically at belly fat, checking to see if it posed a risk in people even if they were otherwise not overweight.
The study examined 6,583 health-care plan members between the ages of 40 and 45 who had their abdominal fat measured in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The researchers followed up to see what happened to them between 1994 and 2006, when they reached their 70s and beyond.
The findings were published in Neurology in the March 26 online issue.
It has been found that about 16 percent of those studied developed dementia, also known as senility. Researchers pointed at that obese people who had the most abdominal fat in their 40s were 3.6 times more likely to develop dementia than those with the least amount of abdominal fat.
On the other hand,People who were overweight, and had large bellies in their 40s were 2.3 times more likely to develop dementia.
In general, 21 percent of those with high levels of belly fat developed dementia, compared to 15 percent of others, Whitmer said.
The vice president of medical and scientific relations with the Alzheimer's Association,Mr William Thies, said another theory is that the physical presence of fat below and its compression of abdominal organs could burden the entire body, affecting the brain by increasing blood pressure and cholesterol. However, "whether there's a direct biological link between body fat and Alzheimer's has yet to be established," he said.
Source: www.healthcentral.com/alzheimers/news-210370-29.html?ic=506016
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