Beer Bellies Linked to Alzheimer's Disease - Amyloid-beta Protein
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Beer Bellies May Be Linked to Alzheimer's; UW Researchers See Tie between Disease, Increasing Weight in Men
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
07-12-05
Looking at a group of middle-aged Wisconsinites with parents who had Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found a connection between overweight men and levels of a protein that accumulates in the brains of those who get the memory-robbing disease.
As their body weight increased, men tended to have lower levels of amyloid-beta in their cerebrospinal fluid, according to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Amyloid-beta is the protein that is the hallmark of Alzheimer's.
It is believed that as levels of the protein drop in cerebrospinal fluid, they go up in the brain, leading to the formation of the plaques that are associated with the disease.
For women, the relationship was not found, leading researchers to conclude that it may have something to do with differences between how men and women put on weight.
"Where the fat is deposited . . . a beer belly as opposed to the hips, it's more (or less) likely to cause blood vessel damage," said lead author Cynthia Carlsson, an assistant professor of geriatrics and gerontology at the UW Medical School.
Abdominal fat has long been associated with increased risk of heart disease.
People with so-called central adiposity are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and unhealthy levels of fats in the blood, all factors that may increase a person's risk of developing dementia.
"(Obesity) may be a facilitator of the metabolic changes that can lead to (Alzheimer's)," said Steven Dekosky, a University of Pittsburgh neurologist who was not a part of the study.
Dekosky, a spokesman for the Alzheimer's Association, said the study presented interesting findings.
"The inference is, plaques are forming (in the brains of the overweight men)," he said. Over the last several years, studies have hinted at a connection between obesity and the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Last year, researchers found that having diabetes in middle age increased the risk of developing Alzheimer's by 65%. The study involved 824 Catholic nuns, priests and brothers 55 and older from several states, including Wisconsin.
Another study last year found that women who were overweight or obese throughout adulthood increased the risk of brain atrophy.
The study followed 290 Swedish women over 24 years and did scans of their brains at the end of that period when they were between the ages of 70 and 84.
Those who were overweight at various points throughout the study were significantly more likely to have a loss of brain tissue in the temporal lobe, a part of the brain involved in several cognitive functions, including language, comprehension and memory. The UW study involved 50 men and women ages 42 to 69 with at least one parent who had Alzheimer's. All the people in the study were cognitively normal.
They were part of the ongoing Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention, which involves nearly 500 middle-aged children of people who had Alzheimer's.
For men, a higher body mass index strongly was associated with lower levels of amyloid-beta in their cerebrospinal fluid.
"We are finding that being overweight is not good for your brain," said Mark Sager, a professor of medicine at UW and co- author of the study.
Sager said one theory is that as amyloid-beta levels decrease in cerebrospinal fluid they go up in the brain.
"It's probably dropping because it's being deposited in the brain in these amyloid plaques," he said. "It may be they are in the early stages of Alzheimer's."
Carlsson added that as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the brain cells that make amyloid-beta die, resulting in less of the protein being secreted by those cells into cerebrospinal fluid.
She noted that other studies have found that in people with mild cognitive impairment, a condition that often leads to Alzheimer's, those with lower levels of amyloid-beta were more likely to develop Alzheimer's.
"It may be that lower (amyloid-beta) levels in the spinal fluid serves as a marker that more neurons are dying and, thus, a person is more likely to subsequently show the cognitive consequences of that brain loss," she said.
The researchers also looked at levels of tau, another protein that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, and found lower levels of the protein as body mass index increased in men.
The study was presented at the recent Alzheimer's Association International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia in Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)
