FRIDAY, Nov. 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Abdominal obesity is associated with a significantly increased risk for dementia, even after adjustment for general obesity, according to a study published online Nov. 5 in Obesity.
Geum Joon Cho, M.D., Ph.D., from the Korea University Guro Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues used data from 872,082 individuals (≥65 years) who participated in a Korean national health screening examination in 2009. Associations between waist circumference (WC) and dementia were examined.
The researchers found that when adjusting for body mass index, the hazard ratios for dementia showed a stepwise increase according to the increase in WC categories by 5 cm from 85 to 90 cm in men and from 80 to 85 cm in women up to ≥110 cm (from 1.06 to 1.64 in men and from 1.04 to 1.58 in women). Normal-weight men and women with abdominal obesity had an increased risk for dementia compared with participants without abdominal obesity.
“For all the physicians who deal with geriatric medicine, obesity and dementia, this study emphasizes that waist circumference should be considered in the assessment of obesity-related dementia risk in the elderly,” a coauthor said in a statement.
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This does sound oddly plausible in terms of what they determined. This is South Korea, and those who know about various Asian countries will realize that being “thin” is preferred (obviously, most countries would prefer it, but this is more connected to societal values). South Koreans, Japanese and Chinese are similar in this way. Being slender (in some cases, too slender) is just part of the culture. It’s not a bad thing because in the U.S. we have many obese people… I just have a feeling if they took these same people and investigated other qualities, that the “obese” stomachs that remain would not be primary. To jump to dementia as a result, seems odd. I bet if you took people with a little extra fat, or did a family history, and other variables that the little fat that remains is not the primary cause of the dementia. If I were these doctors, I’d take those same patients/people and have them on a strict diet and exercise program to see if it reverses what they think is dementia. We’re not talking about a lot of weight. Other reasons could easily be the reason. It wouldn’t be surprising if there are other factors that create dementia. In a culture of people who are generally thin (as opposed to the US where many are obese) it may seem like a correlation, when it just may be that there are other genetic factors that are involved. It would be a good idea to take obese patients in the U.S. and contrast them with those in South Korea and see what the correlation is. It could be a metabolism issue. I doubt if all obese people in the U.S. get dementia because they are fat. I’m just saying that this is a different form of comparison, although in South Korea I can see why they would be interested in investigating this.