Vince
Super Moderator
This post will provide the reader with an understanding of why obesity can sometimes increase the risk of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease. It will also clarify how obesity can be profoundly unhealthy for some people while permitting others to remain “healthy at any size” by introducing the reader to different types of obesity and the relative mechanisms through which certain types of obesity can cause physical and psychiatric disease.
One of the most sobering headlines from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) network this month was that “Obesity is now the top modifiable dementia risk factor in the U.S.” (1). The headline was alarming to scientists and health providers for two reasons: first, because the results were drawn from the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) study, one of the largest and most respected prospective health studies in the U.S.; and second because the BRFSS study has been ongoing since 1984, it is possible to evaluate changes in dementia risk factors over time. From this long-term perspective, for example, we can see that the importance of obesity as a potential cause of dementia has risen from a small role in the '90s and early 2000s to becoming now the leading modifiable risk factor. With obesity rates still rising in the U.S., this makes concerns about obesity-related cognitive decline substantial in
the present but even more dramatic for the future as more people are projected to be living with obesity for longer periods of their lives.
Beyond the alarming headline, however, it is important to consider how and under what circumstances obesity could cause dementia and other health conditions. It requires little research, for example, to find examples of people who meet the criteria for obesity yet have none of the numerous health conditions to which obesity is often linked. This population of obese but metabolically healthy are the people most accurately captured by the “health at any size” public
health campaign. Yet it also requires little investigation to find people—meeting precisely the same obesity criteria—whose physical and even mental health has been impaired in a dramatic and causal way by their weight. How can two people with the same obesity experience diametrically different health consequences?
The answer is that there is not just one form of obesity, but many (2). For this post, let’s evaluate two distinct forms of obesity (keep in mind that most people with obesity fall somewhere in between these two) to explain why obesity can be either hazardous or harmless.
www-psychologytoday-com.cdn.ampproject.org
One of the most sobering headlines from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) network this month was that “Obesity is now the top modifiable dementia risk factor in the U.S.” (1). The headline was alarming to scientists and health providers for two reasons: first, because the results were drawn from the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) study, one of the largest and most respected prospective health studies in the U.S.; and second because the BRFSS study has been ongoing since 1984, it is possible to evaluate changes in dementia risk factors over time. From this long-term perspective, for example, we can see that the importance of obesity as a potential cause of dementia has risen from a small role in the '90s and early 2000s to becoming now the leading modifiable risk factor. With obesity rates still rising in the U.S., this makes concerns about obesity-related cognitive decline substantial in
the present but even more dramatic for the future as more people are projected to be living with obesity for longer periods of their lives.
Beyond the alarming headline, however, it is important to consider how and under what circumstances obesity could cause dementia and other health conditions. It requires little research, for example, to find examples of people who meet the criteria for obesity yet have none of the numerous health conditions to which obesity is often linked. This population of obese but metabolically healthy are the people most accurately captured by the “health at any size” public
health campaign. Yet it also requires little investigation to find people—meeting precisely the same obesity criteria—whose physical and even mental health has been impaired in a dramatic and causal way by their weight. How can two people with the same obesity experience diametrically different health consequences?
The answer is that there is not just one form of obesity, but many (2). For this post, let’s evaluate two distinct forms of obesity (keep in mind that most people with obesity fall somewhere in between these two) to explain why obesity can be either hazardous or harmless.
Making Sense of the Obesity-Dementia Relationship
Why weight gain might or might not be a reason to worry about your brain health.
www-psychologytoday-com.cdn.ampproject.org
