Mar 27 2008
Waist size increases Alzheimer’s risk
Mar 27: Obesity is related to many health related problems including Alzheimer’s as according to the study conducted by US researchers. The research shed light on the fact that not only obese persons but also persons who have normal weight who have big waist lines are prone to get affected by Alzheimer’s. The study includes 6583 people and identified that obesity and bulging stomach is the risky combination. The findings of the research were published in the Neurology journal.
According to Dr Rachel Whitmer, lead of the research team of Kaiser Permenente Research, waistline is the ideal indication of the health related problems that arise in future. The waistline one has in their midlife plays a key role in dementia risk. If a person has big waistline in his or her 40s the threat of them being affected by dementia in old age will increase triple.
Even though the research fails to answer the question of how obesity affects the ageing brain many experts believe that the obesity related problems like blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol might be the reason behind this. The research also suggests that measuring body mass index is the ideal way to diagnose the health related risk. After analysing 6583 people the researchers found that 20 per cent of the people with big waistline had a 270 per cent more risk of getting affected by dementia than those with small waist.
While commenting on this Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said: “Waistline is better than body mass index in predicting the risk of diseases in future. Several physicians also consider this as the reliable indicator. By calculating the BMI at home one can identify something is wrong and this could be confirmed by the doctors by calculating the waistline.”
Meanwhile Professor Clive Ballard of the Alzheimer’s society opined that: “This is an important research but the results are not that much astonishing as the waist size is linked to major risk factors of dementia like blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol.”
Further studies are needed to confirm the outcome of the research and to reveal how Alzheimer’s develops.
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