Get fat, die early.
A new study says being very obese at the age of 20 can cut up to a couple of decades off people€™s lives.
The researchers looked at various amounts of overweight and compared them to normal weight. It also analyzed results by race. Life expectancy for very obese 20-year-old white men was 13 years less than for normal weight men. Life expectancy for very obese black men was 20 years less. Very fat 20-year-old white women could expect to lose eight years. Similar black women could lose five years.
Researchers suspect the apparent race difference was due to limitations of the study. But the researchers say the results show that society – as well as overweight people – have to do something about weight.
The senior researcher is at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The study is in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 4:48 pm