Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia decades later, a new study suggests.

It’s not clear why abdominal fat would promote dementia, but it may pump out substances that harm the brain. It’s not just about your weight. While previous research has found evidence that obesity in middle age raises the chances of developing dementia later, the new work found a separate risk from storing a lot of fat in the abdomen. Even people who weren’t overweight were susceptible.

That abdominal fat, sometimes described as making people apple-shaped rather than pear-shaped, has already been linked to higher risk of developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

[Read](http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/26/belly.dementia.ap/index.html “Read the Article”) (AP via CNN)