Belly Fat in Older Women Linked to a 39 Percent Higher Risk of Dementia Within 15 Years: Study

A study in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that above average belly fat in older women can result in a 39 percent increased risk of dementia within 15 years compared with those who have a normal waist circumference, reports CNN . For men and women over 50, the dementia risk is 28 percent when accounting for both body mass index and waist circumference. "As belly size gets larger, the memory center in the brain gets smaller, based on prior studies," said Weill Cornell Medicine's Richard Isaacson. "This new study . . . supports these findings and relates a larger waist size to increased dementia risk, especially in women." Researchers looked at 6,582 subjects 50 or older, measuring their height, weight, and waist circumference and following up with them an average of 11 years. Persons who developed dementia were an average of 71.8 years old at the time of their baseline assessment, and those without dementia had a mean age of 61.9 years old when they entered the study. There could be a direct link between dementia and hormones derived from fat cells, or body fat could be involved in metabolic and vascular pathways associated with the accumulation of amyloid proteins or brain lesions.