Are you obese? It's really time to reconsider keeping that extra pound as a new study suggests that it can also reduce your life to around 8 years.
Many studies have strongly established the correlation between obesity and life expectancy, which means you die sooner than those who are of normal weight. However, as to its effects to life, not much has been said.
A new study conducted by Montreal's McGill University, nevertheless, tells us that it can cut back our total years of healthy life and thus shorten life expectancy by as much as 8 years.
One of the foremost reasons is that obesity can trigger cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Once these two start to set in, reversibility is often very difficult, if not impossible, and the individual is forced to maintain certain medications and limit the activities he or she can enjoy.
Most of all, the person can develop complications. Type 2 diabetes, for example, contributes to nerve damage and major organ failure, especially kidney. Some cancers have also been attributed to obesity, including colon and stomach cancer.
The researchers of the study used the information contained by the 2003-2010 national health and nutrition examination survey of the United States, covering men and women between 20 and 79 years old, to generate a computer model showing the relationship between heart and diabetes risk and various weights among adults. They also compared loss of healthy life and life expectancy in relation to weight.
They then discovered that on the average people who are deemed overweight can lose about 3 years of their life, depending on their sex and age. However, obese people lose more at 6 years and 8 years for the morbidly obese.
Fortunately, by exercising for only 30 minutes a day can already bring your risk for diabetes by 60 percent.
