severe obesity would reduce the length of your life by about a decade

Yet another study has shown how being obese can shorten your lifespan. The lead researcher Gary Whitlock from the Prospective Studies Collaboration used medical information from almost 900,000 men and women who had taken part in almost 60 different studies in Europe and North America.

From their conclusions they estimate that moderate obesity reduces the length of your life by about three years and that severe obesity would reduce the length of your life by about a decade. The researchers who looked at the BMI’s of the people taking part in the respective studies saw that people whose BMI was between 22.5 and 25 lived the longest. They also worked out that on average men and women who had a BMI of 25+ increased their risk of dying by 30 percent for every 10lb. to 12lb. extra in weight.

They also documented a 40% increase the risk of cardiac disease, strokes and other vascular illnesses. A 60% -120% greater risk of developing diabetes, kidney disease or liver disease. A 10% greater chance of suffering from cancer and a 20% greater risk of experiencing lung disease.

They noted that severe obesity (a BMI of 40 to 45) would reduce your lifespan by about the same as smoking. They also made the observation that people whose weight was below normal, (a BMI of less than 20) tended to die earlier too from smoking related diseases thus showing that many smokers are underweight and therefore don’t look after their health.

Dr. David Katz from the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine explained that not everybody believed the dangers of obesity to long life but this study clearly ascertained that being overweight or obesity would take “years from life” and that it was a “clear and present danger.”

The research was published in the medical journal The Lancet.