Excess weight shortens life expectancy

PHILADELPHIA – Packing on too many extra pounds can shorten your life.

Two studies published this week suggest that life expectancy decreases as excess body mass grows.

A severely obese 20-year-old white man can expect to lose 13 years of life, compared to a normal weight peer, according to research in Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even a slightly overweight young adult male may lose a year off his life.

And people who were obese by age 40 shaved six or seven years off their lives, compared to their normal weight counterparts, according to an article that appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Those who were merely overweight and didn’t smoke at that age lost about three years of life compared to a normal weight nonsmoker.

“Everything else being equal, you’re worse off being obese,” said Norman Lasser, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

“These articles heighten the importance of a focus on obesity as a national health care problem,” said William Dietz, head of nutrition and physical activity for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thirty-one percent of adults in the United States are obese – up from 23

percent a decade ago and 15 percent in 1980, according to recent government data. And about two out of three adults are overweight. Adults are considered overweight if their “body mass index” is 25 or more, obese with a BMI of 30, and extremely obese with a BMI of 40. Body mass index is a ratio between height and weight.

Marian Uhlman, Knight Ridder Newspapers

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