Obesity could protect against dementia

Middle-aged overweight people have almost 30 per cent lower risk of establishing dementia than people of a healthy weight, a remarkable study has claimed.

Middle-aged people who are thin with a Body Mass Index (BMI) less than 20 are a third more prone to develop dementia than people of same age with a healthy BMI, researchers said.

Researchers located at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and OXON Epidemiology examined data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) of patients including 9 per cent of UK population. They observed the medical history of nearly two million people with an average age of 55 years at the beginning of the study period, and an average BMI of 26.5 was just within the range generally classed as overweight.

During an average of 9 years effect, almost fifty thousand people were spotted with dementia.

People who were malnourished in middle age were more prone to be diagnosed with dementia than those of a balanced weight, and this raised risk of dementia remained even 15 years after the underweight was recorded.

Dr Nawab Qizilbash said, “Logic behind why a high BMI might be related to a reduced risk of dementia are not apparent, and more work is needed to understand why this might be the case.”