Ожирение укорачивает жизнь на десять лет

http://www.inopressa.ru/article/18Mar2009/guardian/obese.html
Избыточный вес укорачивает жизнь человека на три года, а серьезное ожирение ведет к смерти на десять лет раньше срока, пишет газета The Guardian, ссылаясь на данные ученых Оксфордского университета.

Выводы, опубликованные он-лайн медицинским журналом Lancet, основаны на анализе данных почти миллиона людей, полученных в результате 57 различных исследований, проведенных в основном в Европе и в Северной Америке.

Ученые выявили, что люди с избыточным весом, индекс массы тела (ИМТ) которых колеблется в пределах от 30 до 35, умирают на три года раньше, чем это случилось бы при нормальном весе. Серьезное ожирение, при котором ИМТ колеблется в пределах от 40 до 50, сокращает жизнь на десять лет, пишет автор статьи Сара Босли.

Сэр Ричард Пето из отдела клинических исследований в Оксфорде, который проводил исследование, отметил, что убедить людей прекратить набирать вес нелегко. "Очень сложно сбросить вес, - отметил он. - Но прекратить набирать вес вполне возможно".

Источник: The Guardian

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Health

Obese die up to 10 years early, study of a million people finds• Worse ahead 'when fat kids turn into fat adults'
• No excuse for smoking, says Oxford scientist
Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Wednesday 18 March 2009 larger | smaller Article historyModerate obesity shortens lives by three years and the seriously obese will die 10 years before they should, according to a definitive study by Oxford University researchers.

The study, published today online by the Lancet medical journal, is an analysis of data relating to nearly one million people worldwide. It is the largest ever investigation of how obesity affects mortality.

The analysis looked at the BMI (body mass index) of nearly a million people who had been weighed and measured in 57 separate studies, mostly in Europe and North America. On the BMI scale, calculated by dividing an individual's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres, more than 25 is considered overweight and more than 30 obese.

People in the study - funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK - were followed for up to 20 years, during which time 100,000 died.

The best BMI to have, the researchers found, is about 24 - the group with the lowest mortality rate. For somebody 5ft 7in (170cm) high, that would equate to a weight of about 70kg, or 11 stone.

People who were moderately obese, with a BMI of 30 to 35, which is now common, died three years earlier than they would have done at a normal weight. Severe obesity, with a BMI between 40 and 50, cut the lifespan by 10 years. That is as life-shortening as smoking - but severe obesity is still rare, affecting about 2% of the population.

Sir Richard Peto of Oxford's clinical trial service unit, who conducted the study, said efforts should be made to discourage people from piling on the pounds, which most often happens in Britain between the ages of 25 and 50. "It's very difficult to lose weight and keep it off," he said. "But stopping putting on weight is practicable."

People in their 20s with the optimum BMI of 24 would have to put on nearly a third of their body weight to be classed obese and double their size to become seriously obese. But Peto is concerned people should not get the wrong idea. Obesity kills, but only in extreme cases will it kill as fast as cigarettes.

"These are two things that you do have any choice about," Peto said. "I think smokers are getting the wrong message if they keep on smoking and think what matters is obesity. Smoking matters enormously more."

The study is the defining statement of the impact of obesity on lifespan as things are now, Peto said, but "we have got to keep this under observation".

During the earlier years of the study, there was no childhood obesity epidemic. "When we start getting fat kids turning into fat adults, we need to see what happens," he said. "Morbid obesity of 40 to 50 BMI now affects only 2% of adults in late middle age - but if it got to 20%, what would go with it?"

Most obese adults die of heart disease and stroke, although cancer figures are also rising. While obesity-related deaths from heart disease and stroke are on the increase, overall numbers have dropped. "Vascular death rates in middle age are less than half what they were in 1990," said Peto. The fall is partly due to better treatment, but more to do with the numbers who have stopped smoking.

Peto worries that people who are obese may begin to think their weight is a bigger problem than their cigarette habit. Recent stories about cancer prevention highlighted excess weight and drinking over the factor responsible for more cancers than any other single cause - smoking. "Stopping smoking works," he said. "Millions of people are alive now who wouldn't be if they hadn't stopped smoking."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/18/health-nhs-obesity-smoking/print