Scientists could be on the verge of a medical breakthrough after discovering why obesity may dramatically raise the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Experts have long warned that obesity increases the risk of serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, as well as cancers, with studies showing it may induce cognitive decline.
But now, US researchers believe they may have discovered how the condition triggers the acceleration of Alzheimer’s.
They found that greater levels of tiny fat-storing molecules in obese people made them more prone to one toxic protein, amyloid, spreading in the brain.
Significant clumps of this protein, as well as another — tau— can form plaques and tangles — and this is thought to be behind the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia.
Experts today, who labelled the research the ‘first of its kind’, said targeting these fat-storing molecules may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in obese people.
However, they cautioned that further research was vital to prove that the molecules ‘directly contribute’ to the build up of amyloid.
Dr Stephen Wong, an expert in medical imaging and the biology of neurological disorders at Houston Methodist Academic Institute and study co-author, said: ‘As recent studies have underscored, obesity is now recognized as the top modifiable risk factor for dementia.’
In the study, researchers took swabs from lean and obese volunteers in hospital to track their levels of subcutaneous and visceral fat.
Subcutaneous fat is the layer of fat just beneath the skin that is pinchable, while visceral fat is deeper, surrounding the internal organs.
Tests already undertaken by hospital patients, including cerebrospinal fluid tests, were used to assess their levels of amyloid in the brain.
The researchers found that levels of the types and levels of lipids in the fat-storing molecules differed between obese and lean volunteers.
Greater levels of certain lipids in these molecules, found in obese patients, changed how quickly amyloid clumped together, they said.
The tiny molecules were capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, they added.
Writing in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the researchers said that targeting these tiny molecules and disrupting their communication which may lead to plaque formation, could help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people with obesity.
But they added, that while the study provided valuable insight into the link between the molecules and build up of amyloid in the brain, it ‘does not establish’ whether they ‘directly contribute’.
Future studies on animals will be vital to explore ‘potential confounding effects’ that could have impacted the findings and if there is a definitive link.
Treatments or strategies that target the molecules could then act as ‘potential therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases’, they also said.
It comes as a landmark study last year suggested almost half of all Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented by tackling 14 lifestyle factors from childhood.
World-leading experts found two new risk factors—high cholesterol and suffering vision loss—were, combined, behind almost one in ten dementia cases globally.
They join 12 existing factors, ranging from genetics to smoking status, that experts have identified as increasing the risk a person would suffer dementia.
Experts claimed the study, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, provided more hope than ‘ever before’ that the memory-robbing disorder that blights the lives of millions can be tackled.
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia and affects 982,000 people in the UK.
Memory problems, thinking and reasoning difficulties and language problems are common early symptoms of the condition, which then worsen over time.
Alzheimer’s Research UK analysis found 74,261 people died from dementia in 2022 compared with 69,178 a year earlier, making it the country’s biggest killer.
However, Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise globally; figures from Frontiers revealed that from 1990 to 2019, new cases of Alzheimer’s and other dementias globally rose by approximately 148 per cent, and total cases increased by around 161 per cent.
This is not just because of air pollution, but reflects the globe’s increasingly large aging population.
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