The importance of staying lean from a young age.

The study referred to here examined the association of mid-life adiposity and the reduced probability of maintaining optimal health status at age 70 (Sun Q, et al. 2009).

The participants were 17,065 women who survived until at least the age of 70. They provided information on occurrence of chronic disease, cognitive function, physical function and mental function. The definition of healthy survival to the age of 70 and over was having no history of 11 major chronic diseases and having no substantial cognitive, physical, or mental limitations.

9.9% of the women who survived until at least age 70 met the criteria for healthy survival.

Compared with lean women, obese women with a body mass index of 30 or more had 79% lower odds of healthy survival.

The more weight gained from age 18 until mid-life, the less likely was healthy survival after the age of 70.

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To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.




Reference:

Adiposity and weight change in mid-life in relation to healthy survival after age 70 in women: prospective cohort study. Qi Sun, research associate¹, Mary K Townsend, research fellow², Olivia I Okereke, associate epidemiologist and associate psychiatrist³, Oscar H Franco, assistant clinical professor in public health⁴, Frank B Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology^1,2,3, Francine Grodstein, associate professor of epidemiology^2,3. Published 29 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3796

1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States, 2 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, 3 Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 4 B-160, Health Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL