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# Rapid weight loss may be predictor of dementia
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/210520090704_rapid_weight_loss_may_be_predictor_of_dementia/
- Published: 2009-05-21T08:03:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T15:46:04.000Z
- Description: A Neurology study tracked 1,836 Japanese-Americans averaging 72 years old for eight years; 129 developed dementia, and those with lower BMI at the outset were 79% more likely to become ill. An earlier study had found the pre-dementia weight loss only in women.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, Weight Loss, Dementia, #vivvo-import

Thursday May 21, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, is currently reporting that older people who are thinner or who lose weight rapidly have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia than their heavier counterparts, especially if they were obese or overweight at one time.

Tiffany Hughes, PhD, MPH, who led the study while working on her doctorate at the University of South Florida, tracked 1,836 Japanese-Americans in Washington, with an average age of 72\. Over the eight year study span, 129 of the participants developed dementia; those with lower BMIs at the beginning of the study were 79% more likely to become ill.

Through the years, conflicting results from various studies have muddied the waters when it comes to BMI and its association with becoming demented with age. For example, some research has shown a correlation between significant belly fat in middle age and subsequent dementia.

However, a study published by the same medical journal in 2007 seems to verify the current research, with one caveat: the earlier study showed that females who had dementia were more likely to lose weight, while their male counterparts generally maintained their BMIs. The results of Hughes’ study were not gender specific.

In the prior study, Dr. David Knopman of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine studied 481 patients with dementia, comparing them with a healthy control group. Women who eventually developed dementia began to lose weight 11-20 years prior to the onset of dementia, while men showed no such variation.

The gender difference between the two studies may be nothing more than a cultural phenomenon, according to Dr. Knopman. Women, he asserts, are more likely to neglect cooking for themselves in the early stages of dementia, while men typically have someone to do the cooking for them.

(By Rachel Stockton, and edited by Heather Kelley)