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Excess Weight on Hips Linked to Memory Problems

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Study Shows Connection Between Memory Loss as well as Location of Overweight in Obese Women

By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News

Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD

July 14, 2010 -- Older women who are obese are more likely to experience memory problems, especially incase their excess weight is located around their hips, a recent study shows.

As well as researchers say the location of the overweight seems to be substantial -- that it's worse for memory incase it's around the hips than incase it's located around women's waists.

Diana R. Kerwin, MD, an assistant professor of medicine as well as a healthcare professional at Northwestern Medicine at Northwestern University, examined data from the Women's Health Initiative hormone trials involving 8,745 cognitively common, postmenopausal women ages 65 to 79.

Participants received an evaluation of brain function designed to detect cognitive as well as memory states, answered health as well as lifestyle questions, as well as submitted to measurements of height, weight, body circumference, as well as blood pressure.

Body mass index (BMI) is a statistical measure of a person's body -- calculated using weight as well as height. A BMI of 18.5 suggests a person is underweight, 18.5-24.9 is common weight, 25-29.9 means the person is overweight, as well as 30 as well as higher is obese.

The researchers say their study shows that for every one-point increase in a woman's BMI, her memory score dropped by a point on a 100-point memory test called the Modified Mini-Mental Status Examination.

"The message is obesity as well as a higher Body Mass Index are not pleasant for your cognition as well as your memory," Kerwin says in a news release. "While the women's scores were still in the common range, the added weight definitely had a detrimental effect."

'Pear' Shaped vs. 'Apple' Shaped

Women who possess excess weight around their hips are known as "pear" shapes, as well as those with extra weight around their waists "apple" shapes.

Kerwin says the reason pear-shaped women experience more memory loss as well as brain function deterioration than their apple-shaped counterparts is likely related to the class of overweight deposited around the hips vs. the waist.

"Obesity is without money, but its effects are worse depending on where the overweight is located," Kerwin says.

Cytokines -- hormones released by the predominant good of overweight in the body that can cause inflammation -- likely affect cognition, she says.

Scientists possess already shown in previous research that dissimilar kinds of overweight release dissimilar cytokines as well as possess dissimilar effects on insulin resistance, lipids, as well as blood pressure.

"We need to find out incase one good of overweight is more detrimental than the other as well as how it affects brain function," Kerwin says. "The overweight may contribute to the formation of plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease or a restricted blood flow to the brain."

The findings should provide guidance to doctors treating or counseling overweight patients, the researchers say.

"The study tells us incase we possess a woman in our office as well as we know from her waist-to-hip ratio that she's carrying excess overweight on her hips, we may be more aggressive with weight loss," Kerwin says. "We can't change where your overweight is located, but having less of it is best."

Alzheimer's Disease: Men vs. Women

The researchers did not address whether their findings in the study on older women may be real for men. Alzheimer's disease, they write, is 1.5 times more likely to develop in women than men.

Previous research as well as has shown that obesity has been associated with poorer cognitive function in men. They as well as write that the discrepancy between men as well as women found in done studies may reflect differences in body weight as well as distribution of overweight.

Kerwin tells WebMD in an email that the most substantial finding of the study is that "obesity is associated with worse cognitive function as well as that it has a more pronounced relationship incase the woman" is pear-shaped.

"It is real, though, that overweight distribution on the body, or the pear-shaped woman, which is a tiny waist as well as larger hips, as well as an apple-shape woman with a larger waist relative to hips as well as high waist-hip ratio, cannot be controlled as well as is the alike throughout life, even incase your weight changes," she says by email.

The study is published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

Kerwin discloses that she has received consultant fees from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, as well as Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

SOURCES: News release, Northwestern Medicine (Northwestern University).

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