The middle-aged spread has now become the middle-aged dread.
A new study suggests middle-aged obesity — particularly in women — can hurt the brain and cause dementia problems later on. The study was released online in the British Medical Journal and conducted by Kaiser Permanente’s research division.
It makes it clear that if there was ever a reason to cut down a bit on the hot fudge sundaes, piled high plates of pasta, bagels and lox, or the third (or fourth) trip to the buffet tables this is it. Elites TV:
The study followed the lives of 10,000 Californians for nearly 30 years. The study results showed that those who were classified as overweight in their 40s increased their chances of getting dementia by 35 percent over people in the ‘normal’ weight range while people classified as obese in their 40s were 74 percent more likely to have dementia occur than people in the normal weight range.
Out of 10,276 people in the study, 713 of them were eventually diagnosed with some form of dementia. Researchers used two different ways to determine if patients were obese. First, they examined the subjects’ body-mass index and then they measured the thickness of skin folds under the shoulder blades and under the arm.For some reason, the effect was twice as prevalent in women than in men. Obese women were twice as likely to develop dementia than women in the normal weight range while for men, the risk increase was just 30 percent.
‘We really adjusted for everything under the sun that is related to dementia. We brought in stroke, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease – everything that has been implicated – and yet we still found this effect,’ said the study’s leader, Dr. Rachel Whitmer. ‘That suggests that there’s another pathway. It’s not just that being overweight raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes and that’s why these people get dementia.’
Reuters adds this:
Excess weight is also linked to higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and psychological problems….Because of the aging of the global population, dementia is expected to increase 400 percent in the next 20 years. Some estimates predict there will be 45 million sufferers worldwide by 2050.
PS: This is an important issue to discuss with your friends or parents. Discuss it with them over a pizza.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.