Neurology: obesity or dementia associated with a high risk for an individual. Poor diet and lack of exercise or not!

January 7, 2020 / Biovalley / recently, a research report published in the international journal Neurology, scientists from the University of Oxford, UK, found that obesity in middle age is related to the higher risk of dementia in later life, but poor diet and lack of exercise are not related to the increased risk of dementia Image source: Sarah, cc0 public domain researcher Previous studies have shown that poor diet or lack of exercise may increase an individual's risk of dementia, but our study found that these factors may not be related to the individual's long-term risk of dementia; the short-term correlation between these factors and the risk of dementia may reflect behavioral changes caused by early symptoms of dementia, such as poor diet and lack of life Move and so on The study included about 1137000 women, a quarter of whom were born in the UK between 1935 and 1950, with an average age of 56, who did not develop dementia at the start of the study The researchers asked participants about their height, weight, diet and exercise at the start of the study BMI is a measure of body size based on height and weight In this study, BMI at 20-25 is considered desirable, while more than 30 is considered obese Women who report exercising less than once a week are considered inactive At the same time, researchers calculate their calorie intake based on the daily diet reported by women The researchers then tracked participants for an average of 18 years, with 18695 women diagnosed with dementia 15 years after the start of the study; when they adjusted for age, education, smoking and many other factors, they found that women who were obese at the start of the study developed dementia later than those who were BMI acceptable (20-25) There was a 21% increased risk of dementia in 2.1% (3948 / 177991) of obese women and 1.6% (7248 / 434923) of women with acceptable BMI (20-25) However, in the first 10 years of the study, the researchers found that low calorie intake and lack of exercise were related to the increased risk of dementia in the body, but these correlations were significantly reduced after 15 years of study Later, the researchers found that the above two factors were not related to the risk of dementia in the individual Other studies have shown that people become less active and lose weight for up to 10 years before they are diagnosed with dementia; the short-term association between dementia, lack of exercise and low calorie intake may be the result of the earliest signs of disease before symptoms begin, said researcher floud In other words, obesity in middle age is related to the risk of dementia after 15 years or more, and obesity is a recognized risk factor for cerebrovascular disease, which will lead to dementia in later years; finally, the researchers said that the limitation of the study is that it is only for women, and the results may not be the same in men Original sources: Sarah cloud, Rachel F Simpson, Angela balkwill, et al Body mass index, die, physical inactivity, and the identity of dementia in 1 million UK women, neurology, December 18, 2019, DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000008779