Those calories will getcha’. And according to the latest research, they won’t just ruin your girlish figure – they’ll also increase your chances of suffering from dementia later on in life. Something to keep in mind for you rainmakers looking to broker deals until you take your final breath. Read on to find out whether it’s time to reconsider disentangling that ever-expanding belt from the Bubby’s tablecloth.

Middle-aged people with excess belly fat have an increased risk later in life of Alzheimer's and other diseases that cause dementia, researchers said.

The likelihood almost quadrupled for obese people who had big stomachs compared with people of normal weight who had little or no belly fat, the researchers said today in the online issue of Neurology. A bulging waistline on those who were either normal weight or overweight also increased the chance of dementia symptoms such as memory loss.

Dementia may be a sign of Alzheimer's or blockages of small blood vessels in the brain, and researchers said the study is the first to link the symptoms with midsection fat. Alzheimer's afflicts more than 5 million Americans, making it the chief cause of dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association, a patient-advocacy group.

``It's not too early to think about your risk factors,'' said Rachel Whitmer, a scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, and lead author, in a March 20 telephone interview. ``People as early as midlife need to not only be thinking about weight, but about where they carry their weight.''

High amounts of abdominal fat in midlife also have been linked to a higher risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease, the researchers said.

Researchers analyzed medical records of 6,583 men and women who had their belly fat measured between 1964 and 1973. The scientists then looked at findings of dementia from medical records an average of 36 years later. The diagnoses included Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, which is caused by the blockages in the small blood vessels of the brain.

Reason for Risk Unknown

In the study, 1,049 people developed dementia.

Those who were obese and had high amounts of abdominal fat were 3.6 times as likely to develop the condition. Those who were overweight had 2.3 times the risk. Those who were normal weight and with high amounts of abdominal fat were almost 1.9 times as likely to get dementia as their normal-weight counterparts with little or no belly fat.

Being obese means having abnormally high body fat, while being overweight refers to excess body weight that may come from muscle, bone, fat or water.

It is unclear how exactly a large midsection raises a person's dementia risk, and future studies will look for answers, Whitmer said. Abdominal fat is associated with visceral fat tissue, which is wrapped around the organs and secretes many hormones and inflammation-producing compounds that may affect the brain, she said.

Studies in animals have shown that leptin, a hormone secreted by the visceral fat cells, may cross into the brain, Whitmer said. Leptin also plays a role in the plaque that forms in areas of the brain that control thinking and memory in patients with Alzheimer's.

``We're only at the start of understanding what these hormones and these byproducts of the fat can do,'' she said.

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