NYTimes: Excess Weight at Age 50 Tied to Earlier Alzheimer’s Onset

By Nicholas Bakalar September 10, 2015 5:45 am
Being obese at age 50 may be tied to an increased risk of developing
Alzheimer’s disease at a younger age.
Previous studies have shown that being overweight at midlife is associated
with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Now researchers have found
that it also predicts occurrence at a younger age.
Scientists studied 1,394 cognitively normal people, average age around
60, following them for an average of 14 years. During the study, 142 developed
Alzheimer’s.
After controlling for age, race, level of education and cardiovascular risk
factors, they found that each unit increase in B.M.I., or body mass index, at
age 50 was associated with a 6.7­month decrease in the age of onset of
Alzheimer’s.
The study, in Molecular Psychiatry, also found an association of higher
B.M.I. with larger deposits of neurofibrillary tangles on autopsy, one of the
characteristics of brain damage in Alzheimer’s disease.
“Age of onset is not as well studied as risk,” said the senior author, Dr.
Madhav Thambisetty, a neurologist at the National Institute on Aging. “As we
try to cure Alzheimer’s disease, we also want to delay the onset of symptoms.
Until we know what factors accelerate onset, we won’t be able to test any
potential interventions. And that is perhaps as important as the search for
treatment.”