Even if you aren't technically overweight, carrying too much weight around your midsection during middle age may raise your risk of dementia decades later in life.

A California researcher from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, along with colleagues, examined records from more than 6,000 people who'd had their abdominal diameter measured in the mid 1960s to 1970s. This measure is like drawing a line from your spine through your abdomen to your navel. Researchers then looked to see how many of these people developed dementia over an average of 36 years.

Those with the highest abdominal diameter - in other words, the people thickest through the belly - had nearly three times more risk of dementia than the people with the lowest abdominal diameter. Even among people with a normal body weight, those with a high abdominal diameter were 89 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with a low abdominal diameter.

Carrying too much weight around the midsection–dubbed "central obesity" – could raise your risk of dementia by putting you at risk of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease, which are all associated with dementia. Or the dementia could be due to inflammation in the body caused by the abdominal fat, according to the authors.

You can do something to reduce your risk, however: Exercise is a good way to trim down your belly.

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