Obesity Begins Early and Shortens Late Life
As a chiropractor who is concerned with the overall health of my patients, I keep extensive files on new health discoveries and important healthy studies. Sometimes, though, it seems to me that some studies are unnecessary as the result is pretty much a foregone conclusion anyway. A case in point, here’s a study that I was about to add to my “You think?” file. A Danish study found that men who are obese by age 20 die eight years earlier on average than their non-obese peers. Hm-mm, you think? Naturally this finding, in and of itself, is not surprising. Obesity leads to early death (barring any unforeseen accidents and Acts of God that cut short general longevity). Excess weight leads to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and a whole slew of musculoskeletal problems that I treat every day. Obesity is just not a healthy condition for any living being, including the human being. But, the research also indicated that obesity usually develops before the age of 20 and that most people are unlikely to develop obesity later in life. Now, that is surprising.
The study was conducted at the Copenhagen University Hospital at the hospital’s Institute of Preventive Medicine. The researchers there included more than 5,000 men took part in the study, starting from age 20 through to age 80. Of these, nearly 2,000 were obese when they began the trial. The research took into account influences such as smoking, year of birth, and education, but did not consider other factors, such as hereditary diseases.The study concluded that the risk of premature death in already obese men increased 10 percent for every point surpassing the healthy level of 25 body mass index points. Body mass index (BMI) is used to determine an individual’s body fat using height and weight calculations.
“At age 70 years, 70 percent of the men in the comparison group and 50 percent of those in the obese group were still alive and we estimated that from middle-age the obese were likely to die eight years earlier than those in the comparison group,” said Esther Zimmermann, who led the study. Though the research did not include women, it confirmed findings made in similar studies.
The most surprising part of this study was not elaborated upon. Was research done as to why obesity was unlikely to develop later in life? In any event, a healthy diet later in life is important whether or not extreme weight gain is an issue
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