Being fat may save you from dementia, according to science
Forget everything your doctor, nutritionist, trainer, and fat-shaming family member ever told you about the correlation between heart health and brain health. Packing on the pounds in middle age appears to cut the risk of developing dementia, rather than increase it, according to The Lancet scientific journal.
In a study of two million people, researchers found that compared with average weight people, underweight people had a 34 percent higher risk of developing dementia, while the very obese had a 29 percent lower risk of showing signs of the brain disease.
Many previous smaller-scope findings have suggested the reverse, but the sheer magnitude and extent of this new research gives it an unusual amount of, well, weight. Further research is needed and experts caution that obesity still carries its own health risks. But, hey, you might as well throw caution to the wind and ask for seconds or order dessert. Who knows how long we have before science returns to its natural Debby Downer state?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
-
Today's political cartoons - February 3, 2025
Cartoons Monday's cartoons - TikTok on the hook, DEI dumped, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Organic wines that won't cost the Earth
The Week Recommends From a 'zippy' muscadet to a 'dangerously drinkable' malbec
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Can the UK avoid the Trump tariff bombshell?
Today's Big Question President says UK is 'way out of line' but it may still escape worst of US trade levies
By The Week UK Published
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energy
Speed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocket
Speed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials say
Speed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published