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Overweight
Elderly at Higher Risk for Alzheimer's By Rob Stein Overweight
elderly people are more likely than those who stay trim to be stricken by
Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported today, the first strong evidence
linking the burgeoning weight crisis with the increasingly common brain
affliction. While previous
studies had raised the possibility that excess flab may increase the risk
of dementia, a new study that followed several hundred elderly Swedish
people for 18 years clearly showed that those who were heavy at age 70
were markedly more likely to get Alzheimer's in their eighties. The findings add
Alzheimer's to the long list of serious ailments caused by being
overweight or obese, a problem that is skyrocketing in the United States
and other parts of the world. But the new study offers perhaps the most
compelling reason to stay slim even into old age: reducing the danger of
suffering the agonizing loss of thinking abilities. "A lot of
times, as people age, they say, 'I don't have to be worried about my
weight anymore.' But clearly having excess body fatness isn't healthy, in
particular for Alzheimer's," said Deborah Gustafson, who conducted
the study while at Utah State University. "Since more people are
living into their eighties and nineties, I think it's a significant public
health impact of being overweight and obese." The study found
the link only for women, but Gustafson and other experts said that was
probably because there weren't enough men in the study who lived long
enough to get Alzheimer's. "It very
well may be that obesity is so toxic in men that they die from it before
they can develop Alzheimer's," said Bill Thies, vice president of
medical and scientific affairs for the Alzheimer's Association. Previous research
had found that people suffering from conditions associated with being
overweight or obese, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels
and cardiovascular disease, were at increased risk for Alzheimer's. But
this is the first large, long-term study to specifically examine the
connection between weight itself and Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a
progressive, devastating loss of thinking abilities, caused when brain
cells die for reasons that remain unclear. About 4 million Americans are
estimated to have Alzheimer's, a figure that could increase to 14 million
by 2050, according to some estimates. Gustafson and her
colleagues studied 392 people participating in a broad, ongoing project
investigating various health issues in Sweden. The subjects underwent
extensive physical and cognitive examinations and answered detailed
questions about their health and lifestyles at age 70 and then
periodically during the next 18 years. Women who were
overweight at ages 70, 75 and 79 were more likely to develop dementia by
age 88, the researchers found. For every 1 percent increase in their body
mass index (BMI) at age 70, there was 36 percent increased risk for
Alzheimer's, the researchers reported in today's issue of the Archives of
Internal Medicine. BMI is standard body weight measurement based on height
and weight. A 5-foot 6-inch tall woman who weighs 155 would have a BMI of
25. A BMI of 25 or above is considered overweight; 30 or above is
considered obese. The researchers
did not find the same association for men, but Gustafson and others said
that was likely because too few men lived long enough for the association
to become apparent in the size of the sample that was studied. "We just
didn't have enough men to look at in the sample," Gustafson said. Being overweight
may increase the risk for Alzheimer's by raising blood pressure and
narrowing arteries, restricting blood flow to the brain, Gustafson said.
It could also have a direct effect, perhaps because fat cells secrete
substances that are harmful to neural cells. "The obesity
issue is important because it is fundamental to all those other risks. It
raises people's blood pressure, it raises serum lipids," Thies said. "We probably
don't have to know the exact mechanism to suggest that a healthy long life
will be associated with trying to control these risk factors. We have all
sorts of good reasons for doing that," Thies said. Neil Buckholtz,
chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch at the National Institute on Aging,
said the findings were intriguing because they could offer one of the few
ways people might be able to reduce their risk Alzheimer's. "We're always looking for potentially changeable risk factors, and this is changeable," Buckholtz said. "There are some things we can't change, like age. If this is true, then there are ways of modifying it." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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