Belly fat increases dementia risk

People with fat stomachs could be at a greater risk of developing dementia, scientists from Boston University School of Medicine have warned.

For the study, Sudha Seshadri, and colleagues recruited participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. The sample included 733 community participants who had a mean age of 60 years with roughly 70 per cent of group comprising women.

“Our results confirm the inverse association of increasing BMI with lower brain volumes in older adults and with younger, middle-aged adults,” said Dr. Seshadri.

“More importantly our data suggests a stronger connection between central obesity, particularly the visceral fat component of abdominal obesity, and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Seshadri added.

The study has been published online in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.

 For women, marriage comes with health risks

Marriage comes with numerous health risks, especially for brides, according to a new book For Better (For Worse): The Science Of A Good Marriage that analyses more than 200 matrimony studies to show that an unhappy marriage can be more harmful to long-term health than becoming single again.

Leading British marriage counsellor Andrew G. Marshall feels most of us tend to ignore marriage’s powerful effect on physical wellbeing.

“Because we have this rosy view of love conquering all, we think we can neglect it and things will just keep trundling along. We don’t realise that if this building block in our lives collapses, our health goes with it. I’ve had clients who get terrible migraines, panic attacks and depression.”

Marshall believes marriages can particularly affect women’s health.

He said: “For a man, marriage is wonderful because you don’t really have to think about looking after yourself. But women end up doing the worrying for two.”