Obesity raises dementia risk by 80%

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Thursday , May 08, 2008 at 1213 hrs Obesity can raise the risk of Alzheimer's disease by almost 80 per cent, researchers in the United States have claimed.

A team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has carried out a review of ten studies, involving over 37,000 people, and found a close link between the two diseases -- obesity and dementia.

The review suggests that obesity increases the risk of dementia in general by 42 per cent, Alzheimer's by 80 per cent and vascular dementia by 73 per cent, the Obesity Reviews journal reported.

According to the study's senior author Youfa Wang, "Our analysis of the data shows a clear association between obesity and an increased risk for dementia and several clinical subtypes of the disease.

"Subjects with a healthy body mass index and waist circumference saw a decreased risk for dementia than their counterparts with an elevated BMI or waist circumference.