Lifespan + Obesity

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As Weight Goes Up, Life Span Goes Down

Grossly obese at greatest risk

http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/511141.html

By Randy Dotinga

HealthScoutNews Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthScoutNews) -- Just about everyone knows being fat is

bad for your health, but now researchers have found a way to bring that fact

home.

They've shown how many years you can lop off your life by carrying around

extra pounds, particularly if you're very overweight and white.

Using formulas based on a common measurement of obesity, the researchers

estimate that morbidly obese young white people can reduce their life spans

by eight to 13 years, depending on gender.

" It's common for people to belittle obesity as either a comic problem or a

cosmetic problem. They don't see it is a real serious health problem, and

this points out that it is, " says study co-author , a professor

of biostatistics and director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Center at

the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

explains he and his fellow researchers wanted to help Americans

understand the risks of being significantly overweight.

" We've known with great confidence that, with all other things being equal,

severe obesity results in increased mortality rate, " he says. " But when I

start saying things like that, it makes it sound slightly obscure. Then

(researchers) use terms like 'relative risk' or 'odds ratios' and 'hazard

ratios,' and I'm not sure how comprehensible they are to the public or the

average physician. "

and his researchers examined data about American life spans that was

compiled from 1971 to 1999. Then they tried to estimate how a person's body

mass index affected his or her life span.

The findings appear in tomorrow's issue of the Journal of the American

Medical Association .

Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of whether a person is underweight,

overweight or just right. It's calculated by dividing a person's weight in

kilograms by his or her height in meters.

The researchers found that whites who lived the longest had a BMI ranging

from 23 to 25; for blacks the range was 23 to 30. Being over -- or under --

those numbers could spell trouble, the researchers found.

said the researchers aren't sure why blacks can be heavier than

whites and not face the same risk of shorter life spans. It could have

something to do with how fat is distributed in the body, he says.

That means a 5-foot-4 white person could weigh up to 145 pounds (25 BMI),

while black people of the same height could go up to 174 pounds (30 BMI)

without losing years off their lives, the study found.

For six-footers, whites could weigh up to 184 pounds (25 BMI) while blacks

could weigh up to 221 pounds (30 BMI) and still not risk shortening their

life.

Not surprisingly, morbidly obese people -- those with BMIs over 45 -- were

at the highest risk of shorter life spans. White men aged 20 to 30 with a

BMI over 45 lost up to 13 years of life, and white women lost as many as

eight. Morbidly obese black men could shorten their life span by up to 20

years, and morbidly obese black women up to five years, according to the

study.

To be morbidly obese, with a BMI of 45, a 5-foot-4 person would have to

weigh 262 pounds; a six-footer would have to weigh 332 pounds.

Another study released this week also linked obesity to earlier death.

Dutch researchers examined the medical records of 3,457 people who were

middle-aged in 1950 and lived in Framingham, Mass. The researchers found

that non-smokers who were overweight -- with BMIs between 25 and 30 -- died

three years earlier than non-smokerswho had " normal " BMIs of less than 25.

Smokers at age 40 who had BMIs above 30 -- making them obese -- lived 13 to

14 years less than their non-smoking counterparts with normal weights,

according to the study. It appears in today's issue of the ls of

Internal Medicine .

The links between obesity and poor health are clear, says. Being fat

can boost the risk of heart disease, stroke and some kinds of cancer.

Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School,

wrote a commentary about 's study. She says the findings will help

doctors and politicians get a better handle on obesity's toll.

" It needs to be taken much more seriously. Obesity hasn't received the same

attention that tobacco use and high cholesterol have received, " she says.

agrees and adds the new findings may help politicians better

understand the obesity problem and perhaps devote more federal resources to

fighting it.

What To Do

To calculate your body mass index, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention <http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm> .

For assistance in losing weight, check the American Obesity Association

<http://www.obesity.org/> .

SOURCES: , Ph.D., professor, biostatistics and director,

Clinical Nutrition Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham;

JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., M.P.H., professor, epidemiology, Harvard Medical

School, Boston; Jan. 8, 2003, Journal of the American Medical Association ;

Jan. 7, 2003, ls of Internal Medicine

Copyright C 2003 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

in Texas (TnT)

Give yourself a real pay raise. GET OUT OF DEBT!

________________________________

From: thefatmanwalking_group

[mailto:thefatmanwalking_group ] On Behalf Of SueW

that wouldn't make sense because kids died too early to affect the adult

status - I believe deaths of kids are not reported or taken in consideration

- that just sounds like some excuse people are making NOW to explain why,

when 60 percent of the American population suffers the dread obesity, we are

living MUCH longer than even 20 years ago!

And anyway, kids haven't died off like that since before the 1930s when the

lifespan wasn't all that much higher. In the fifties it wasn't that much

higher, maybe somewhere in the 60's and no one was fat in the 1950's...

I think it's like the new CDC stats which put obesity as LESS dangerous than

guns... no one wants to admit it... LOL

hugs,

Sue