"...in the past decade, a growing body of evidence suggests that the two conditions obesity and dementia may be directly associated and, perhaps, causally linked, albeit in complex ways."Obesity and late-onset dementia are both increasingly prevalent problems in our society. There is evidence that the two conditions may be associated more often than would be expected by chance. The underlying reasons could be a common genetic propensity, lifestyle choices that predispose to these conditions, direct causal links or a complex interaction between these two conditions. Exploring this link in more detail with epidemiological and mechanistic studies may help reduce the public health and individual burden of late-life dementia. The lifetime risk of obesity and dementia have increased in parallel over the past 60 years. The increase in obesity is attributed to the availability of cheaper food with more 'empty' calories per gram, changing dietary habits and decreasing levels of physical activity. The increase in dementia is attributed to increased life expectancy (as mortality caused by alternative causes, e.g., cardiovascular disease and cancer, declines) and, perhaps, to improved recognition of cognitive decline in the elderly as abnormal and preventable. However, in the past decade, a growing body of evidence suggests that the two conditions may be directly associated and, perhaps, causally linked, albeit in complex ways.
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