- Healthy older adults who have been obese for years may be at higher risk of developing dementia than their peers who aren't overweight, research from the UK suggests.
People with obesity often have other health problems like diabetes and high blood pressure that can independently increase the risk of dementia, previous research has found. But results regarding the connection between obesity and dementia have been mixed, with some previous studies suggesting that this excess weight might actually be protective.
"The same is true of damage to the arteries in the brain, which also contributes to dementia," Melzer said."This slow development of dementia makes it difficult to separate real risk factors from the effects of the disease." The study wasn't designed to prove whether or how obesity might directly cause dementia in later years. Another limitation is that researchers lacked data to examine the connection between obesity and specific forms of dementia like Alzheimer's disease, the authors note in Age and Ageing.
They found that weight loss over 30 years, starting in middle age, was associated with an increased risk of dementia in old age. Having excess fat in old age, however, was tied to a lower risk of dementia.
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