Having belly fat not only poses aesthetic concerns, but also affects a person’s health by elevating the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease. According to a new study, higher amounts of visceral abdominal fat in the middle ages raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Visceral fat is a hidden fat found deep within a person’s abdominal cavity that wraps the internal organs, including the liver and intestines. Some levels of visceral fat help to protect the organs, but too much of it is a sign of metabolic syndrome associated with high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance. Visceral fat gets stored when a person eats too many calories and takes too little exercise.
Researchers found a link between these hidden fats and changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s, which might help to predict the condition even 15 years before the earliest symptoms appear. The findings will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“Even though there have been other studies linking BMI with brain atrophy or even a higher dementia risk, no prior study has linked a specific type of fat to the actual Alzheimer’s disease protein in cognitively normal people. Similar studies have not investigated the differential role of visceral and subcutaneous fat, especially in terms of Alzheimer’s amyloid pathology, as early as midlife,” said study author Mahsa Dolatshahi, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in a news release.
More than 6 million people in the U.S. live with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive condition that affects a person’s memory, thoughts and ability to carry out conversations. The number is expected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
The research team evaluated 54 cognitively healthy participants between the ages of 40 to 60, with an average BMI of 32. The participants’ brain volumes were measured using MRI and the presence…
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