David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

Try This Simple Test to Find Your Dementia Risk

14 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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1:15

In this brief video, board‑certified neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter explains that chronic inflammation—whether in the brain or elsewhere in the body—is a key driver of cognitive decline and dementia. He offers a quick, free self‑test to gauge inflammation risk: measuring the waist‑to‑hip ratio with a tape measure. For men, a ratio above 0.90 and for women above 0.85 signals excess abdominal fat, which he links to heightened inflammation and therefore increased dementia risk. Dr. Perlmutter emphasizes the simplicity of the test, connects the metric to underlying biological mechanisms, and encourages viewers to follow him for more health information.

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This simple free test can help you determine your risk for dementia. Hi, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. I'm a board-certified neurologist and fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and what are the mechanisms that make a good brain go bad? Primarily, one of the most important is something called inflammation. We've all heard of inflammation. Inflammation ongoing in the brain is a bad thing, and oddly enough, inflammation anywhere in the body ultimately makes its way to the brain. And how can we determine if in fact there is inflammation? Well, there are blood tests that are available, but one simple thing we can do is get out a tape measure and measure the ratio between the size of our waist and the size of our hips. Generally, we want the waist to be less than the hips. In men, anything over 0.9, and in women, anything over 0.85 in terms of the waist-to-hip ratio Translates into an increased risk for cognitive decline and actually full-blown dementia. Why? Because it's an indication of increased abdominal fat that increases inflammation. As I mentioned, that's a fundamental mechanism in terms of what makes a good brain go bad. If you like this information, follow me. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. Bye for now.