Belly Fat Increases Dementia Risk

According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI), there are about 24 million people in the world living with dementia, with 4.6 million new cases coming forward every year.he study by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) published online in the journal Annals of Neurology, confirms the inverse association of increasing BMI with lower brain volumes in older adults and with younger, middle-aged adults.

Researchers noted that this was the first study to do so in a much larger sample: previous studies have used data on up to 300 participants.  This study included over 700 individuals.

For the body measures they included: Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, and measures of abdominal fat (called visceral adipose tissue or VAT) determined using computed tomography (CT) scans. They also took into account other physiology measures such as insulin resistance.

As well as confirming the link between increasing BMI and lower brain volume they found a statistically significant link between abdominal fat and lower total brain volume.

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