Obesity increases the chances of older people suffering from "dementia"

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Healthy seniors who have been obese for years are more likely to contract dementia than their non-obese peers, according to a recent study by researchers at Exeter University. .

The study team studied two groups of non-dementia adults aged 65 to 74 over the age of 15, one of two groups of 257,252 patients considered to be in good health, not smoking. not, not having cancer, heart attack or chronic health problems. Adults are considered unhealthy and smoke or have serious and chronic health problems.

During the first 10 years of study, healthy people with obesity or weight gain were less likely than normal weight healthy people, but obesity was then associated to a 17% increase in the risk of dementia.

"When we look at the long-term situation, obesity is definitely linked to an increased risk of dementia," said lead researcher David Melzer.

He added that weight loss before the diagnosis of dementia can blur the link between obesity and cognitive impairment. Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia, can develop slowly over 20 years before diagnosis.

Previous research has revealed that obese people generally suffer from other health problems, such as "diabetes and hypertension," factors that may increase the risk of dementia per se, but findings regarding the link between Obesity and dementia were uneven, with some studies showing that the former could be a protective factor. Of the disease.