Study Links A Gene That Causes Obesity To Raised Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

The University of California Los Angeles researchers found that a variant of the gene known as FTO causes loss of brain tissue associated with a number of diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Nearly half of the world carries this harmful gene - a third of the US people and nearly half of European natives.

The study was conducted on 206 healthy elderly people using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). They found that there was consistently less tissue in the brains of those who carry the "bad" version FTO gene (8 percent less tissue in the frontal lobes and 12 percent less in the occipital lobes). On average, people who carry this specific DNA chain are heavier than those who do not carry it.

Senior study author Paul Thompson, a UCLA professor of neurology, said carriers of the FTO gene can counteract the risk of both obesity and brain loss by exercising and eating healthy.

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