Will Belly Fat make you dumb?

Abdominal obesity (otherwise known as "belly fat") increases your risk of dying from both heart disease and cancer.

But you probably knew that already.

Here is a recent study that breaks new ground and should really grab your attention.

This study showed that abdominal obesity dramatically increases your risk of developing dementia as you age (RA Whitmer et al, Neurology, 71: 1057-1064, 2008).

This study involved 6,583 members of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, ages 40 to 45, who had their abdominal obesity measured between 1964 and 1973.

The investigators then pulled their medical records between 1994 and 2006 when they were between 73 and 87 years old and asked how many of them had dementia.

The results may shock you.

The participants were divided into five groups based on their abdominal circumference. Those with the largest abdominal circumference were nearly 3 times more likely to have developed dementia than those with the smallest abdominal circumference.

And that was after the data were adjusted for age, sex, race, education, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, stroke and heart disease - all factors that are known to affect the risk of dementia.

Interestingly enough the abdominal circumference was a better predictor of dementia risk than was BMI, the most frequently used measure of obesity.

Those subjects who had high abdominal obesity and normal BMI had a 2-fold increased risk of developing dementia, while those subjects who were obese but had normal abdominal circumference had only an 80% increased risk of developing dementia.

Of course, those people who were both obese and had a large belly were the worst off - they had almost a 4- fold increased risk of developing dementia.

Are you thinking, "If I don't like what I see when I look into the mirror, am I doomed to develop dementia when I get older?"

The answer is no. Most experts feel that the effects of abdominal obesity are reversible.

But the time to act is now!

If you wait until you get older, you might just forget that you ever read this article.

Thank you to Dr. Stephen Chaney for this valuable information.

If you are reading this, know there is a safe, tasty way to loose that belly fat.  Contact Mary Beth at Mama Bear Productions to find out how much of a Cinch it really is!