Big belly boosts risk of later dementia

NEW YORK - Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting Alzheimer's disease or other dementia decades later, a new study suggests.

It's not just about your weight. While previous research has found evidence that obesity in middle age raises the chances of developing dementia later, the new work found a separate risk from storing a lot of fat in the abdomen. Even people who weren't overweight were susceptible.

That abdominal fat, sometimes described as making people apple-shaped rather than pear-shaped, has already been linked to higher risk of developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

"Now we can add dementia to that," said study author Rachel Whitmer of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

She and others report the findings in Wednesday's online issue of the journal Neurology.

The study involved 6,583 men and women who were ages 40 to 45 when they had checkups between 1964 and 1973. As part of the exam, their belly size was measured by using a caliper to find the distance between their backs and the surface of their upper abdomens. For the study, a distance of about 10 inches or more was considered high.

The researchers checked medical records to see who had developed Alzheimer's or another form of dementia by an average of 36 years later. At that point the participants were ages 73 to 87. There were 1,049 cases.

Analysis found that compared to people in the study with normal body weight and a low belly measurement:

• Participants with normal body weight and high belly measurements were 89 percent more likely to have dementia.

• Overweight people were 82 percent more likely if they had a low belly measurement, but more than twice as likely if they had a high belly measurement.

• Obese people were 81 percent more likely if they had a low belly measurement, but more than three times as likely if they had a high measurement.

Whitmer said there's no precise way to translate belly measurements into waist circumference. But most people have a sense of whether they have a big belly, she said. And if they do, the new study suggests they should get rid of it, she said.

It's not clear why abdominal fat would promote dementia, but it may pump out substances that harm the brain, she said.

Dr. Jose Luchsinger of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who studies the connection between obesity and Alzheimer's disease but didn't participate in the new work, cautioned that such a study cannot prove abdominal fat promotes dementia.

But the study results are "highly plausible" and "I'm not surprised at all," he said. High insulin levels might help explain them, he said.

Dr. Samuel Gandy, who chairs the medical and scientific advisory council of the Alzheimer's Association, said the results fit in with previous work that indicates a person's characteristics in middle age can affect the risk of dementia in later life.

And it's another example of how traits associated with the risk of developing heart disease are also linked to later dementia, he said.

STUPID STUPID STUPID!

Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting Alzheimer's disease or other dementia decades later, a new study suggests.

...risk from storing a lot of fat in the abdomen.

This constitutes an excellent example of the utter stupidity which permeates the popular understanding of modern medicine. First, someone conducts an apparently legitimate research project. They find that two factors have a correlation. They then use the label “risk factor,” especially if one factor occurs before the other. Legitimately used, it is just a shorthand way of saying that there is a correlation.

Unfortunately, either through ignorance or malice, this phrase “risk factor” is reported as meaning “one causes the other.” Even worse, medical professionals too often begin thinking this way, and medicate to reduce the “risk factor,” presuming that this will reduce the second factor.

Now, even the researchers (who should know better) make the same mistake:

It's not clear why abdominal fat would promote dementia, but it may pump out substances that harm the brain, she said.

That is because there is not a cause and effect relationship.

High insulin levels might help explain them, he said.

Maybe,but that is only a secondary effect.

...traits associated with the risk of developing heart disease are also linked to later dementia, he said.

Yes, and none are CAUSED by “belly fat.” They need to take a step or two back. Belly fat (actually Lipodystrophy) in its most blatant presentations, is recognized in three major conditions: 1. Kwashiorkor/protein starvation; AIDS; and Hypercortisolism – and ALL are characterized by PROTEOLYSIS. Proteolysis means the body is destroying its own collagen and cells, to get the amino acids it needs to build hormones, enzymes, etc. required to sustain life.

Professionals would ask whether proteolysis (in arteries and/or cardiac muscles) might be an actual cause of heart disease. Professionals would ask whether proteolysis might occur in the brain, and cause dementia. Excess cortisol is known to damage brain cells; (although apparently NOT in Alzheimers) maybe it does so through proteolysis.

All of these are guesses, and, even if proven true, only go one or two steps back in the chain of causation. They, in turn beg even more questions:

What causes AIDS dementia?

Does excess cortisol cause protein malabsorbtion? Does AIDS?

What causes excess cortisol?

One cause of excess cortisol is STRESS. Instead of trying to reduce belly fat,maybe we should be trying to reduce stress.

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