As the Baby Boomers age and develop more chronic diseases there is a predicted epidemic of cognitive dysfunction and dementia expected to occur. At the same time the Baby Boomer retirement explosion is occurring the nations of the world are experiencing a significant increase in obesity and its health related problems. In the April 10th issue of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology researchers in Great Britain published a paper suggesting that being overweight might be more protective against the development of dementia than being at a normal weight or underweight. In fact they felt that underweight individuals having a Body Mass Index of < 20 had a far higher risk of developing dementia than normal weight individuals or obese individuals (BMI > 30). The data was collected and analyzed from the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink by Nawab Qizilbash, MSc, DPhil, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study looked at records of people aged 40 or older between 1992 and 2007.
The author concluded that “If increased weight in midlife is protective against dementia, the reasons for this inverse relationship are unclear at present.” Previous smaller studies on the issue suggested just the opposite that being overweight in midlife was a risk factor for developing dementia. Deborah Gustafson,, PhD, from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York cautioned that these results are certainly not the “final word” on the topic.
As a clinician we always advise patients to live a life and eat a diet based on moderation. The study did not make it clear if the protective effect of being overweight extended to the massively obese or not. What is clear is that being at an extreme seems deleterious, while being at normal body weight or mildly overweight may be protective.
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