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Developing Dementia A large stomach has long been linked to a host of medical conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes Now a US study says that a big belly in your 40s can almost triple the risk of developing dementia later in life. What is even more worrying is that people who weren't overweight but who had a large waist were found to be more at risk. In the study, published in the journal Neurology, researchers measured the abdominal fat levels of 6,583 men and women aged 40 to 45 using a caliper. The researchers then kept track of the participants into their 70s to find out who had developed Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia more than 30 years later. The study found that people who had normal weight based on their body mass index (BMI) but had a large belly were 89 percent more likely to develop dementia (you can calculate your BMI here.) Participants who were overweight but had a small belly had an 82 percent risk of developing dementia. However, this more than doubled if they had a big belly. Obese people were 81 percent more likely to have dementia if they had a small belly. But this figure dramatically rose threefold if they had a big belly. |
