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As if the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease isn’t enough tomake you work out, researchers have added another: Alzheimer’s disease.

In a report published in the March 26 issue of Neurology, researchers found that people with a paunchy potbelly in their 40s had more than double the risk – 2.3 times – of developing Alzheimer’s in old age than their flat-bellied cohorts. People who are both clinically obese and have a larger stomach are 3.6 times as likely to suffer from dementia.

“Considering that 50 percent of adults in this country have abdominal obesity, this is a disturbing finding,” said study author Rachel Whitmer, PhD.