PHILADELPHIA: Contrary to what’s been suggested by past research, older adults who are underweight have the highest risk for developing dementia. That’s the conclusion of a new study.
Researchers analyzed health data for almost 2 million people living in the UK and tracked the data for up to 20 years. The researchers focused on body mass index (BMI) values, so they tried to rule out other factors that may contribute to dementia risk, such as alcohol, history of stroke or heart attack, as well as use of blood pressure drugs. All 1,958,191 people who were studied were between 45 and 66 years old at the start of the study, and had their medical information pulled from a large medical data base.
They found that the people with the lowest body mass index values had the highest risk of developing dementia…