Obesity Predicts Better Alzheimer’s Survival

A longitudinal analysis of Health and Retirement Study data (1998–2022; ~4,500+ older adults) found that people who were obese at the time of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis had materially lower mortality risk than normal‑weight peers. The survival advantage persisted after tests for simple survivor and reverse‑causation biases, and authors suggest physiological buffering (energy reserves against dementia‑related wasting) as a plausible mechanism. — This reframes the public discussion of obesity in late life from a uniform harm narrative to a nuanced risk‑tradeoff that affects clinical guidance, prognostic communication, and policy on weight‑loss interventions for older adults.