Obesity can speed up onset of Alzheimer's Disease for middle-aged adults, study finds

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A new study has shown that gaining weight during midlife can increase the development of Alzheimer's disease earlier.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found that those, who put on too much weight and be considered overweight or obese at age 50, may increase the speed at which Alzheimer's disease may develop. This suggests that they may develop the symptoms of the degenerative disease earlier. The findings were published Sept.1 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Researchers looked into the body mass index of nearly 1,400 American adults and monitored for 14 years. In the group, 142 have gotten Alzheimer's at an average age of 83. They then used the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a long-term study that tracks down healthy people as they get older, to determine the effects of obesity.

Previous research has revealed that obesity is linked to earlier onset of developing the disease, however, researchers are unsure how it affects age.

"Although being overweight or obese in midlife is known to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, we do not yet understand how it may affect the age when the disease first begins," Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, lead author from the NIH, told CBS News.

According to the findings, for each point increase in body mass index (BMI) at age 50, the onset of symptoms increased by nearly seven months. The cause of Alzheimer's disease is still unknown and the research does not prove that obesity accelerates the symptoms of the disease.

"We found that for every unit increase in body mass index when these individuals were 50 years of age, they developed Alzheimer's disease on average 6.5 months earlier, Thambisetty said, via Daily Mail. "We also found in individuals whose brains we could examine after they died, that every unit of increase in body mass index was associated with more neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, which is one of the key pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's."

According to WebMD, health conditions tied to obesity such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure appear to increase Alzheimer's risk. Other factors that can contribute to increasing the risk are genetics, smoking habit, family history and age.

According to Heather Snyder of the Alzheimer's Association, who was not involved in the study, the study adds more evidence to previous research that links midlife obesity to Alzheimer's and it provides grounds for more research to help understand how the health of the cardiovascular system is beneficial for the brain.

As for health advice, Snyder said via Chicago Tribune: "What's good for your heart is good for your brain."