Daily HealthBeat Tip

Heavy thinking.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A new study finds that people who keep their weight normal in their 40s are less likely than overweight people to develop dementia as they age. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, looked at more than 10,000 people over almost 30 years. While seven out of 100 normal-weight people developed dementia, 8 out of 100 overweight people did, and so did 9 out of 100 obese people.

The study could not show why weight would be linked with dementia. But it weeded out other factors implicated in the condition, such as diabetes and stroke. And researcher Rachel Whitmer of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Foundation says the findings amount to a good reason to control weight:

"With hard work, people can lose weight. Other known risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer's disease, such as family history, are not modifiable. Here we have found something that we can actually do something about."

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 12, 2005

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