Excess Weight in Middle Age Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
May-03-2011

There's a new reason to keep middle-age spread to a minimum: Being overweight or obese in your 40s or 50s may increase your odds of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia later in life, a study finds.
"Our results contribute to the growing evidence that controlling body weight or losing weight in middle age could reduce your risk of dementia," says study researcher Weili Xu, MD, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
In this new study, published in the May 3 issue of Neurology, researchers looked at 8,534 twins aged 65 and older who participated in the Swedish Twin Registry.
Thirty years earlier, the registry had collected self-reported heights and weights from each twin. Nearly 30% of them were overweight or obese in middle age.
Three decades later, scientists gathered data about each twin's current weight, height, health status and medical history, and educational background. They also did a telephone interview to rate their cognitive skills, asking 1,450 people to come in for a follow-up exam.

Read the rest of the article right here: http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20110502/excess-weight-in-middle-age-linked-to-alzheimers-disease

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