According to a new study conducted at Boston University Medical Center, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia is directly associated with the levels of fat-cell-produced appetite-suppressing hormone - leptin.

As per the findings of the study, spanning 12 years, people who have higher levels of leptin have notably reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease or any form of dementia, vis-à-vis those having lower levels of leptin.

For the study, the researchers observed 785 people who started out without any explicit signs of dementia in 1990 to 1994. Brain scans were conducted for almost 200 of the study participants for measuring their brain volume.

Establishing the association between leptin concentrations in the blood and Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, the study revealed that after an average of 8 years - in some cases 15 years – dementia was reported in 111 people, 89 of whom were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

It was noted that for people who started out with highest leptin levels had merely a 6 percent risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia, as against the 25 percent risk faced by people with the lowest leptin levels.

Moreover, of the people who underwent brain scans, those with higher leptin levels showed more brain volume in the hippocampus – the brain’s key memory center - compared to those who started with lower leptin levels.