Researchers discovered that people with a high amount of visceral fat, which forms around vital organs in the abdominal cavity, have more abnormal proteins in their brains.
Previous studies have shown that visceral fat can accumulate in individuals who are not overweight but simply have fat deposits in the abdominal area. This phenomenon has been termed "skinny fat," and it is sometimes observed in people with a "healthy" body mass index but low muscle mass. However, the largest risk group consists of individuals with obesity and excess weight.
Scientists studied health data from 80 individuals aged 40 to 50 years without signs of dementia. The study showed that obesity in middle age or a beer belly may indicate that you are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease over the next 20 years.
Just over half of the study participants suffered from obesity, and all of them underwent body scanning to track visceral fat and brain scanning to identify amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. Higher levels of visceral fat were associated with increased amyloid protein content, reports Daily Mail.
The connection between the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and the level of visceral fat in people aged 40 to 50 means that measures such as diet and exercise for weight loss could have a significant impact on the development of dementia decades later.