Demography

Eat Right for a Healthy Brain

A study shows why losing weight could save you from brain damage.

Yet another reason to watch your weight: A new study says that it could cut your future risk of dementia by as much as 20%.

“There is a strong correlation,” says May Beydoun, postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-author of the study. “The rates of dementia increase with the rates of obesity.”

The study reviewed 10 previously published reports on dementia and obesity. Beydoun and co-author ­Youfa Wang, assistant professor of international health, found the incidence of dementia to be 20% higher among obese adults. Incidence of ­Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, was 80% higher.

“Preventing or treating obesity at a younger age could play a major role in reducing the number of dementia patients and those with other commonly associated illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease,” according to Wang.

There is reason for worry. World Health Organization data for 193 surveyed countries indicates that 160 saw their populations’ overweight and obesity rates increase between 2002 and 2005.

WHO expects the problem to get worse in the years ahead, projecting that the numbers of overweight and obese adults, respectively 1.6 billion and 400 million in 2005, will total 2.3 billion and 700 million by 2015.

Most of the increase is in developing countries. The biggest increases in female obesity between 2002 and 2005 were in Haiti and Bangladesh; for males, Cambodia and Vietnam.

“Obesity and obesity-related diseases are now becoming a disease of poverty,” says Daniel Epstein, WHO public information officer. “Even if people are poor, they can get more caloric intake.” Epstein blames some of the problem on the increased availability of fast food, which tends to beat its healthier alternatives in price and convenience.

“If you go to a store and buy fresh fruits and fresh salad makings, it does turn out to be more expensive and more time-consuming than just feeding them junk food,” Epstein says. Fast food is also aggressively advertised. “A guy might see five fast-food commercials in one day. He might see one government commercial that says ‘Eat right. Take care of your kids. Feed them healthy foods.’”

There have not been nearly enough campaigns that might counter the advertising, according to Caitlin Carlson, communications officer for international aid group Mercycorps.*

“Our health teams aren’t seeing it. It hasn’t gotten the kind of responses that other problems like AIDS and hunger have,” she says.

Beydoun hopes that this study will help raise awareness of the long-term rates of obesity.

“There are more efforts to be done, especially on younger children and other adults. I’m not sure how much action is taking place now, but there are clear signs that we need to work more on this,” she concludes.—Rick Docksai

Sources: Public Health News Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, E3144, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2179.

WHO Global Database: Data for Saving Lives” World Health Organization. Web site (June 1, 2008). 

 

 

Clarification 9.10.08

The story "Eat Right for a Healthy Brain" (September-October 2008) quoted Caitlin Carlson, communications officer for international aid group Mercycorps, as suggesting that obesity among the poor may due in part to fast-food advertising campaigns encouraging unhealthy eating habits in developing nations. Caitlin and Mercycorps have never taken an official position on the potential effects of fast-food advertising on obesity rates among the poor.