The obesity crisis may be increasing the number of incidences of a once-rare brain disorder that can cause chronic headaches and blindness, a study has warned.
Researchers from Wales found analysed 1,765 cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) — a condition which mimics the symptoms of a tumour.
It occurs when the pressure in the fluid surrounding the brain rises — and can cause chronic, disabling headaches and varying degrees of vision problems.
A common treatment for the condition involves a program of weight loss. Women of child-bearing age are considered to be at the highest risk from the condition.
The team said that IIH diagnoses rose six-fold between 2003–2017, with the number living with the disorder increasing from 12 people out of every 100,000 up to 76.
In 2013, similarly, 2 people out of every 100,000 were identified with the disorder — while the rate had increased to eight people diagnosed each teat by 2017.
The obesity crisis may be increasing the number of incidences of a once-rare brain disorder that can cause chronic headaches and blindness, a study has warned (stock image)
Looking at 35 million patients in Wales over a 15 year period, the new study identified 1,765 cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension — with 85 per cent of these patients being women, the researchers said.
The team found strong links — for both men and women — between higher body mass indices, or ‘BMI’, and risk of the developing the disorder.
Among the women identified by the study were 180 cases where the individual in question had a high body mass index, as compared to just 13 cases where the women had an ‘ideal’ BMI.
For the men, meanwhile, there were 21 cases among those with a high body mass index, as compared to eight cases for those with an ideal BMI.
The team also found that — for the women only — socioeconomic factors appeared to play a role in determining their risk.
The women in the group with the fewest socioeconomic advantages had 1.5 times the risk of developing the disorder than women in the group with the most advantages — even after the researchers adjusted for body mass index.
‘The considerable increase in idiopathic intracranial hypertension we found may be due to many factors but likely mostly due to rising obesity rates,’ said paper author and consultant neurologist Owen Pickrell of Swansea University.
‘What is more surprising from our research is that women who experience poverty or other socioeconomic disadvantages may also have an increased risk independent of obesity,’ he continued.
‘Of the five socioeconomic groups of our study participants, women in the lowest two groups made up more than half of the female participants in the study.’
‘More research is needed to determine which socioeconomic factors such as diet, pollution, smoking or stress may play a role in increasing a woman’s risk of developing this disorder.’
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Neurology.
