It’s a well-known fact that the longer you smoke, the greater your changes are for cancer. It turns out that the same sort of thing is true with obesity. The longer you are obese, the greater your risk of death.
Currently, health risk in relation to obesity has been measured by how heavy a person is. Studies have shown that how long a person is obese may be an even more important measure.
The study found that for every 2 years a person is obese, their death risk increased by 7%. If a person was obese for 15 to 25 years, their death risk more than doubled. And for people who were obese more than 25 years… their death risk more than tripled.
This data suggests that mortality risk associated with obesity is even higher than previously estimated. And what’s worse is that onset of obesity is happening 10 years earlier today than in previous decades. Meaning obesity is becoming a problem with younger and younger people; obese children today can look forward to a shorter life expectancy.
The most important message here is: it’s never too late to lose weight. No matter how old you are, or how long you’ve been obese, losing weight will extend your life and reduce your risk of disease.
Source:
Roberts, Michelle. “Call to measure duration of obesity” BBC News.
