A new study has found that obesity might contribute to faster progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Results of this study have been presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting in Chicago, taking place from November 30 to December 4.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory, thinking, and language skills. It is the most common type of dementia, and early signs often include difficulty remembering recent events.

“This is the first time we’ve shown the relationship between obesity and Alzheimer’s disease as measured by blood biomarker tests,” senior researcher Dr. Cyrus Raji, a principal investigator in the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

For the study, researchers tracked five-year data on more than 400 participants in an ongoing brain imaging study of Alzheimer’s patients and found that people with obesity had blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s that rose more rapidly, including Tau proteins, which form toxic clumps in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.