Big bellies linked to brain ailments
WASHINGTON – People who have big bellies in their 40s are much more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in their 70s, according to new research that links the middle-age spread to fading minds for the first time.
The study of more than 6,000 people found the more fat they had in their guts in their early to mid-40s the greater their chances of becoming forgetful or confused or showing other signs of senility as they aged. Those who had the most impressive midsections faced more than twice the risk of the leanest.
Surprisingly, a sizable stomach seems to increase the risk even among those who are not obese, or even overweight, the researchers reported in a paper published online Wednesday by the journal Neurology.
“A large belly independent of total weight is a potent predictor of dementia,” said Rachel Whitmer, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., who led the new study.
The findings are alarming in light of America’s growing girth, Whitmer and other experts said.
“If these findings are replicated and better understood, it looks like an unhealthy brain could be another consequence of this epidemic of obesity,” said Lenore Launer, of the National Institute on Aging.
The research is the latest evidence that fat in the abdomen is the most dangerous kind. Previous studies have linked the apple-shaped physique to a greater risk of diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Researchers suspect that those fat cells are the worst because of their proximity to major organs. They ooze noxious chemicals, stoking inflammation, constricting blood vessels and triggering other processes that might also damage brain cells.
“There is a lot of work out there that suggests that the fat wrapped around your inner organs is much more metabolically active than other types of fat right under the skin,” Whitmer said. “It’s pumping out toxic substances. It’s very potent toxic fat.”
Whitmer and her colleagues analyzed data from 6,583 members of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California who had their belly fat carefully calculated as part of a broad health study between 1964 and 1973. The researchers examined whether there was a link between abdominal obesity between the ages of 40 and 45 and the chances of developing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia by the time they hit their 70s between 1994 and 2006.
The risk for dementia, the researchers found, increased steadily with the amount of fat in the abdomen, even after accounting for alternative explanations, such as other diseases, bad habits and lower education. They found no such association for fat in the thigh.
The researchers used a complicated method for measuring fat known as sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD). Those with a SAD score above 25 had the biggest bellies and the greatest risk. That is roughly equivalent to a waist of at least 39 inches.
Previous studies have shown people who are overweight are at increased risk for dementia. But when the researchers examined the relationship between body mass index (BMI), which is the most common way to determine whether someone is overweight or obese, they found that those with big bellies were still nearly twice as likely to develop dementia even if they had BMIs that were considered healthy. In fact, their risk was about the same as for those who were overweight or obese.
“What that tells you is the effect of the belly is over and above that of being overweight,” Whitmer said. “One of the take-home messages is it’s not just your weight but where you carry your weight in middle age that is a strong predictor of dementia.”