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The Dementia-BMI Link Losing weight could be a sign of emerging brain issues 
Obesity generally gets a bad rap in the medical community, but for as hard as it is on the body, it just might have some positive brain benefits. A recent study found that older people who have a low body mass index (BMI) or are losing weight might be at a higher risk for developing dementia, especially when compared to seniors who are overweight or obese. For eight years, researchers monitored 1,836 Japanese Americans in Washington State with an average age of 72. During that time, 129 people developed dementia. The participants who had the lowest body mass index scores at the beginning of the study were 79 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with higher BMI scores. �Our finding suggests that losing weight quickly in older age may be an early sign of dementia,� says study author Tiffany Hughes, Ph.D, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. �This doesn�t mean that being obese or overweight is healthy for the mind or body, but losing weight may be a sign of emerging brain disease.� The study participants who lost weight at the fastest rate were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia � a result that was even more prevalent in those who were overweight or obese at the beginning of the study. People with a BMI of 23 or higher had an 82-percent reduced risk of developing the disease compared to those who were normal or underweight. Results were unchanged by other health risk factors such as smoking, regular exercise and gender. �Dementia has been shown to develop in the brain decades before any symptoms develop,� Hughes says. �These findings likely reflect that process. In middle age, obesity may be a risk factor for dementia, while declining weight in late life may be considered one of the first changes from the disease that occurs before it actually affects a person�s memory.�
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