Women who tend to store more fat on their waist than on their hips in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, according to a study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
"Anyone carrying a lot of fat around the middle is at greater risk of dying prematurely due to a heart attack or stroke," Deborah Gustafson, senior lecturer at the Sahlgrenska Academy, said in a statement. "If they nevertheless manage to live beyond 70, they run a greater risk of dementia."
The research, published in the scientific journal Neurology, is based on the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg, which was started at the end of the 1960s. Almost 1,500 women between the ages of 38 and 60 underwent comprehensive examinations and answered questions about their health and lifestyle.
A follow-up 32 years later showed that 161 women had developed dementia, with the average age of diagnosis being 75. Women who were broader around the waist than the hips in middle age more than doubled their risk of developing dementia when they got old.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
