World War I surviving veterans

November 12, 2006

The Washington Post has a story about surviving WWI veterans. Today,

13 are known to be alive. They are all centenarians ranging in age

from 106 to 115. The paper has pictures of the faces of 11 of them,

and they don't look calorie restricted at all. As a matter of fact,

most of them look as if they are a few pounds overweight, but none

look obese.

This reminds me of the study[1] of over 1 million people that were

followed-up for 14 years. The researchers found the optimum BMI for

longevity to be around 23. When this paper was discussed in the CR

Society last August, there was a lot of denial from members who

believe that you have to be thin to live long. The idea that you have

to lose weight and be thin with a BMI less than 20 was also expressed

by Dr. Walford (BT120YD p. 228).

If you have a chance to get today's Washington Post, look at page A8

to see the centenarians' faces. You will not see a single skinny or

emaciated guy. None of them look as thin as Dr. Walford looks in the

picture that pops up when you open up DWIDP.

I think that a moderate version of caloric restriction can help us to

avoid obesity and the associated maladies like diabetes and CVD, but

so far, I don't see any evidence that overly thin people live longer.

Tony

[1] Calle EE, Thun MJ, Petrelli JM, C, Heath CW

Jr.

Body-mass index and mortality in a prospective cohort

of U.S. adults.

N Engl J Med. 1999 Oct 7;341(15):1097-105.

" In healthy people who had never smoked, the nadir of the curve for

body-mass index and mortality was found at a body-mass index of 23.5

to 24.9 in men and 22.0 to 23.4 in women. "

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