Obesity, Diabetes and Heart Disease May Speed Dementia

A series of new studies shows obesity and its common companions — diabetes and heart disease — can work together to speed dementia and other brain ills.

One expert thinks these papers, published in the March issue of Neurology, deliver a key message, namely that people can take steps to reduce their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

According to researchers, people think about lifestyle factors only in preventing heart disease, but not always when it comes to losing mental abilities. They must understand that what they do then with respect to lifestyle - their diet, their weight, their activity level - may have a bigger impact on what’s going to happen to them at age 70.