At 50, Each Body Mass Index Unit Increase Hastens Alzheimer’s 6.7 Months

A new Molecular Psychiatry study has found a robust relationship between obesity at age 50—as measured by body mass index (BMI) – and both earlier age, and severity, of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

In particular, a National Institutes of Aging (NIA) team found that each unit increase in midlife BMI predicts earlier onset of AD by 6.7 months.

“This paper reports analysis of a very well-characterized cohort to identify how midlife obesity influences risk of late-life dementia,” Kaarin Anstey, Ph.D., F.A.S.S.A., told Bioscience Technology. Anstey is director of the Australian National University Dementia Collaborative Research Centre.