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Weight in middle age linked to cognitive trouble later in old age By
Randy Dotinga
THURSDAY,
April 28, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Excess poundage in midlife could spell
cognitive trouble in your golden years, claims a large new study that links
obesity to dementia.
The
findings, which confirm previous research, suggest that "being fat has a
detrimental impact on the brain," said study co-author Rachel A. Whitmer, a
research scientist at the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern
California.
It's
still unclear, however, how putting on extra pounds leads people to lose their
mental faculties.
The
findings appear in the April 28 online issue of the British Medical Journal. Whitmer
and her colleagues studied the medical records of 10,276 people who were members
of the Kaiser Permanente health plan in Northern California from 1964 to 1973.
All were between 40 and 45 years old. The researchers followed up on the plan
members by examining their records from 1994.
By
1994, doctors had diagnosed dementia -- the decline of cognitive functioning --
in 713, or 7 percent, of the patients.
People
who were obese in middle age -- with a body-mass index of 30 or above -- were 74
percent more likely to have dementia than those of healthy weights, while
overweight people, with body mass indexes of 25 to 29.9, were 35 percent more
likely to have dementia. The effect was more significant in women.
Body-mass
index is a ratio of weight to height.
Men
and women who were judged to be fattest by a skin-fold measurement -- in which
calipers are used to gauge body fat -- were 60 percent to 70 percent more likely
to have dementia than those who had the lowest fat levels.
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