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Extra Midlife Body Fat
May Up Risk of Parkinson's
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - Men who lug around excess
body fat through middle age may be at an increased risk of developing
Parkinson's disease, new research suggests.
Dr. Robert D. Abbott of the University
of Virginia in Charlottesville and his colleagues found that men
between 45 and 68 years old with especially thick flesh around
their upper arms--a sign of excess arm fat--were three times as
likely as those with trimmer triceps to develop Parkinson's over
the next 30 years.
The relationship between Parkinson's
and upper arm thickness persisted even when Abbott and his team
factored in the influence of other potential risk factors for
Parkinson's, such as drinking coffee, physical activity and smoking
cigarettes.
"These findings suggest that adiposity
in middle-adulthood is related to an increased risk of Parkinson's
disease in later life," Abbott and colleagues write. Although
other measurements of excess body fat besides upper arm thickness
also correlated with the risk of Parkinson's disease, the relationship
appeared strongest when it included the upper arm, they add.
It is difficult to say how these findings
may one day help patients, the authors note, but they suggest
that analyzing a person's body fat pattern, along with their family
history of Parkinson's, may allow doctors to diagnose the condition
before the patient develops symptoms.
"Although clinical implications are
difficult to address based on findings from the current report,
identifying patterns of adiposity that predate clinical Parkinson's
disease could suggest that subtle Parkinson's disease processes
have the potential for being recognized before the emergence of
motor symptomatology," they note.
"Combining information on adiposity
with other factors, such as a positive family history or early
signs of developing movement abnormalities, could have some uses
for identifying high-risk individuals for future Parkinson's disease,"
Abbott's team adds.
Future research will have to determine
whether both excess fat and Parkinson's stem from a metabolic
pathway found in the bodies of people at an increased risk of
having both, the authors write in the October issue of Neurology.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive,
neurological disorder that causes tremor, muscle rigidity and
movement problems.
In the current study, the investigators
measured body fat in 7,990 middle-aged men, then followed them
for 30 years and noted who developed Parkinson's disease. Markers
of excess body fat included thickness of the tissue of the upper
arm and under the scalp, as well as body mass index--a measurement
that factors people's height into their weight.
During the follow-up period, the researchers noted that 137 men
developed Parkinson's disease. Comparing the different markers of
excess body fat, the team discovered that those with the trimmest
upper arms were only one-third as likely to develop Parkinson's
as those with the most upper-arm fat.
SOURCE: Neurology 2002;59:1051-1057.
Reference
Source 89
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