A global epidemic of obesity, usually measured by body mass index (BMI), persists today, and previous research has revealed that obesity in midlife may increase the risk of dementia. However, the relationship between BMI and dementia risk is not yet clear.
Researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union College of Medicine have found that different patterns of BMI change over a lifetime may be a indicator of a person’s risk of dementia, according to the results that appear online at Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
“These findings are important because previous studies looking at weight trajectories did not take into account how patterns of weight gain/stability/loss might help signal that dementia is potentially imminent,” explained Rhoda Au, M.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology.
Through the Framingham Heart Study, a group of participants were followed for 39 years where their weight was measured approximately every 2-4 years. The researchers compared different weight patterns (steady, gain, loss) between those who had dementia and those who did not.
Au points out that it’s relatively easy for individuals, family members, and primary care physicians to control weight. “If after a steady increase in weight, which is common with aging, there is an unexpected shift towards weight loss after middle age, it would be a good idea to see your doctor and find out why. There are some potential treatments emerging where early detection could be critical to the efficacy of any of them as they become approved and available,” he added.
They found that the general downward trend in BMI was associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. However, upon further analysis, they found a subgroup with a pattern of initially increasing BMI followed by decreasing BMI, both in middle age, which appeared to be central to the association between decreased BMI and dementia.
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