According to Health Day News, being overweight during middle age may increase your risk of developing dementia. Swedish researchers suggest that being overweight at midlife increases the risk of dementia in late life by more than 70 percent.
Why the link? A higher BMI is linked with diabetes and vascular disease, which is in turn related to the risk of dementia. Higher weight at midlife may reflect a long period of exposure to higher inflammation throughout the body, which has been linked with lower cognitive function. There is also evidence that fatty tissue secretes inflammatory cytokines and other chemicals inflicting damage to the neurons.