being overweight or obese in late adolescence was linked to an early death

When asking people what lifestyle factor is the biggest danger to good health most of them would say smoking. While smoking is definitely high up on the list, new research shows that obesity is as dangerous and increases the risk of you dying young just as much.

The study done by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden looked at around 45,000 Swedish men who had been conscripted for military service between the ages of 16 and 19. They were examined for weight and smoking habits and monitored for almost four decades and it was seen that the extra health risk due to obesity in their late teenage years was of the same level as smoking around ten cigarettes a day. The researchers also saw that being overweight or obese in late adolescence was linked to an early death irrespective of whether the men smoked or not.

Other findings were that smoking more than ten cigarettes a day or being obese increased the chances of dying early by two times and that by being just overweight, (as opposed to obese) or smoking between 1 and 10 cigarettes a day increased the death risk by 30 percent.

This research which was published in the British Medical Journal is important because many people believe that being overweight is not really a serious health complication. By comparing the dangers of being overweight to smoking it gives people a better indicator of exactly how their weight can affect their health and increase the chances of them dying young.

Some experts predict that in the future obesity will become the number one health hazard to western nations overtaking the problems generated by smoking. Obesity already is putting a huge burden on the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and some people have even called for a “fat tax” to pay for the extra healthcare required by the obese people in the same way that smokers pay a large tax on their cigarettes which goes directly to ease the burden that they put on the National Health Service.