Dementia & Alzheimer's Risks Decreased in Overweight People

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Weight gain during midlife could help prevent dementia, a new study suggests.

Researchers from The OXON Epidemiology and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine were amazed by their discovery. They found that people who were underweight had a 39% higher chance of developing dementia than those who are of normal weight. But the most baffling part was that as the weight increased, the lesser the chance for dementia, according to the BBC.

Those who were in the overweight category were 18% less likely to develop the condition while those who were obese were at an astonishing 24% lesser rate. The study was conducted by looking at the medical records of British people from approximately 2 million people in the last 20 years. The research was published at the medical journal, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

"If increased weight in mid-life is protective against dementia, the reasons for this inverse association are unclear at present," said Nawab Qizilbash, lead author of the study, member at the OXON Epidemiology and honorary lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the news release. "Many different issues related to diet, exercise, frailty, genetic factors and weight change could play a part."

Qizilbash added that further research is needed to know the reason behind the data, as reported by Fox News.

Stuart Pocock, study author and medical statistics professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said that their findings may hold the key to the treatment of dementia.

"Our results suggest that doctors, public health scientists, and policymakers need to rethink how to best identify who is at high risk of dementia," Pocock noted. "We also need to pay attention to the causes and public health consequences of the link between underweight and increased dementia risk, which our research has established. However, our results also open up an intriguing new avenue in the search for protective factors for dementia."

Further research and studies need to be conducted in order to find the bizarre link between body weight and dementia in the data that was shown. According to a statement of spokesman from Alzheimer's Society, people still need to exercise regularly, follow a healthy diet, and not smoke to keep the brain and body healthy.

Dementia is a category of diseases in the brain. It is not a specific disease, but a group of symptoms that causes memory and thinking disorders. According to Alzheimers.org, there will be over 850,000 people who will be affected by dementia in the UK in 2015. And in 2025, the numbers of dementia patients is expected to increase by 1 million.