Higher BMI Linked to Greater Risk of Vascular Dementia, Study Finds
Creatrip Team
a month ago
A large international study using Mendelian randomization analyzed data from over 500,000 people and found that higher body mass index (BMI) causally increases the risk of vascular dementia. Each 1-standard-deviation rise in BMI was associated with about a 1.63-fold higher risk (range 1.54–1.98 across models). The researchers identified high blood pressure as a major mediator—about 18% of the BMI effect was through systolic blood pressure and 25% through diastolic blood pressure—suggesting that obesity leads to brain blood vessel damage and repeated microinfarcts that cause vascular dementia. No meaningful link was found between BMI and Alzheimer’s disease. Vascular dementia often shows early declines in executive function, judgment, and planning rather than memory, and typically worsens in a stepwise pattern. The authors stress that weight management and blood pressure control before cognitive decline begins are key prevention strategies, noting that recent weight-loss drugs did not clearly halt cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s. (BMI: body mass index)
