Dementia charities recommend maintaining a healthy weight as a preventive measure for brain health. However, recent research suggests that the relationship between obesity and dementia is not straightforward. While obesity in midlife has been found to be associated with an increased risk of developing dementia later in life, some studies have suggested that obesity may actually have a protective effect against dementia.
One concern is “reverse causation,” where weight loss in older adults in the early stages of dementia may be a symptom of the disease rather than a cause. Confounding bias is another issue, where a third factor related to both obesity and dementia may be influencing the observed relationship between the two. New research suggests that lower childhood intelligence may be a factor that influences both obesity and cognitive decline in middle-aged adults, highlighting the complexity of the relationship between obesity and dementia.
Despite these challenges, researchers continue to study the impact of obesity on dementia risk. While maintaining a healthy weight is important for overall health, more research is needed to better understand this complex association between obesity and dementia.
