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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Obesity & Alzheimer's

Aired July 15, 2003 - 09:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A new study says older people who are overweight have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease.
Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in his morning House Call.

Hey, good morning. Nice to see you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

This is a really interesting study actually, looking at obesity and Alzheimer's. So little is known about Alzheimer's Disease. People have been trying to study this for quite some time. Interesting find now, obesity at age 70, specifically having a body mass index of 29, which I'll tell you about in a little bit, actually associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's around the age of 88. This is something people have looked into for quite some time. Some quick numbers, about 4 million people have Alzheimer's, 392 adults were studied for this particular study, 226 of them were women.

The study was done in Sweden. They were followed from age 70 to 88. What they found, pretty simple sort of conclusion here looking at everything, was that the women who were obese at the age of 70, or nearly obese at the age of 70, were more likely to develop Alzheimer's, 60 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's around the mid-80s. Body mass index really quickly, because this is a confusing point for a lot of people.

It's not a body index that's used very often, but if you had to sort of figure it out, this is what it typically is. Underweight, below 18.5, normal 18.5 to 24.9. Obese is 30 and more. The way that you figure it out is to actually take the weight in kilograms and divide by height and meters squared, and that's obviously the metric system. A lot of people don't use that, but it gives you a rough idea of what we're talking about here.

O'BRIEN: The study measured men and women. Did it make a difference? Were women more likely to get Alzheimer's?

GUPTA: You know, what's sort of interesting about this study is that men actually, they could not find any statistical significance with the men. Two reasons, really. One is that not enough men were actually living long enough to actually develop Alzheimer's in their late 80s. Sort of interesting, women live longer than men. This is one of the effects of that, in terms of this study. Also, there were fewer men initially in the study than women as well. So they couldn't draw any conclusions about the men. This was white, elderly women for the most part.

O'BRIEN: Is there any theory behind the conclusion?

GUPTA: Well, you know, again, Alzheimer's has been sort of this quagmire. People have a hard time figuring out exactly what causes. People think it might be related to mini strokes, many of them over time, things like that.

What they know is this, is obesity is associated with lots of different disease processes. You can look at the list there -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes. All those things as well risk factors for Alzheimer's. So is it the obesity directly leading to the Alzheimer's? Probably not. But is that obesity causing a lot of other things that essentially causes Alzheimer's? That could be.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess we should underscore that it's not being skinny that's the ideal weight. Ideal weight is actually sort of a moderate weight, right?

GUPTA: That's right, and the women who were at most risk of Alzheimer's, BMI of 29, which is significantly overweight. Again, we have got some examples here to show you. A body mass index of 29, for example, 5'4", 170. That's significantly overweight. If you have a body mass index of 25, you're 5'9" and weight 170 pounds. Again, the BMI sort of hard to figure for a lot of people, including myself, Soledad, but this is sort of an example, give you some samples of what better body weights are.

O'BRIEN: Interesting study. Sanjay, nice to see you. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Good to see you. Yes, take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 15, 2003 - 09:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A new study says older people who are overweight have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease.
Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in his morning House Call.

Hey, good morning. Nice to see you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

This is a really interesting study actually, looking at obesity and Alzheimer's. So little is known about Alzheimer's Disease. People have been trying to study this for quite some time. Interesting find now, obesity at age 70, specifically having a body mass index of 29, which I'll tell you about in a little bit, actually associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's around the age of 88. This is something people have looked into for quite some time. Some quick numbers, about 4 million people have Alzheimer's, 392 adults were studied for this particular study, 226 of them were women.

The study was done in Sweden. They were followed from age 70 to 88. What they found, pretty simple sort of conclusion here looking at everything, was that the women who were obese at the age of 70, or nearly obese at the age of 70, were more likely to develop Alzheimer's, 60 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's around the mid-80s. Body mass index really quickly, because this is a confusing point for a lot of people.

It's not a body index that's used very often, but if you had to sort of figure it out, this is what it typically is. Underweight, below 18.5, normal 18.5 to 24.9. Obese is 30 and more. The way that you figure it out is to actually take the weight in kilograms and divide by height and meters squared, and that's obviously the metric system. A lot of people don't use that, but it gives you a rough idea of what we're talking about here.

O'BRIEN: The study measured men and women. Did it make a difference? Were women more likely to get Alzheimer's?

GUPTA: You know, what's sort of interesting about this study is that men actually, they could not find any statistical significance with the men. Two reasons, really. One is that not enough men were actually living long enough to actually develop Alzheimer's in their late 80s. Sort of interesting, women live longer than men. This is one of the effects of that, in terms of this study. Also, there were fewer men initially in the study than women as well. So they couldn't draw any conclusions about the men. This was white, elderly women for the most part.

O'BRIEN: Is there any theory behind the conclusion?

GUPTA: Well, you know, again, Alzheimer's has been sort of this quagmire. People have a hard time figuring out exactly what causes. People think it might be related to mini strokes, many of them over time, things like that.

What they know is this, is obesity is associated with lots of different disease processes. You can look at the list there -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes. All those things as well risk factors for Alzheimer's. So is it the obesity directly leading to the Alzheimer's? Probably not. But is that obesity causing a lot of other things that essentially causes Alzheimer's? That could be.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess we should underscore that it's not being skinny that's the ideal weight. Ideal weight is actually sort of a moderate weight, right?

GUPTA: That's right, and the women who were at most risk of Alzheimer's, BMI of 29, which is significantly overweight. Again, we have got some examples here to show you. A body mass index of 29, for example, 5'4", 170. That's significantly overweight. If you have a body mass index of 25, you're 5'9" and weight 170 pounds. Again, the BMI sort of hard to figure for a lot of people, including myself, Soledad, but this is sort of an example, give you some samples of what better body weights are.

O'BRIEN: Interesting study. Sanjay, nice to see you. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Good to see you. Yes, take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com