120 Million People Are Overweight in U.S.

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 07, 2003

120 Million People Are Overweight in U.S.

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People weighing 30 or more pounds too much could lose about seven years from their lives. And carrying even 10 to 30 extra pounds could shorten a person's life span by about three years, a study reports Tuesday.

Although scientists have known for years that being overweight increases the risk of dying early and causes serious health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and some types of cancer, this study is one of the first to estimate how much extra weight reduces life expectancy in a large group followed for decades.

Weighing too much is a serious health problem in the USA, where more than 120 million people are either overweight or obese, government statistics show. That's the highest level ever recorded.

Researchers in the Netherlands examined data from the prestigious Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, Mass., which has been tracking people for years.

The scientists pored over the records of 3,457 participants who started the study when they were 30 to 49. The data was from 1948 to 1990. The average life expectancy for non-smokers with normal weight during that period was nearly 85 years.

Among the findings, which are reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine:

40-year-old male and female non-smokers who were overweight (defined as roughly 10 to 30 pounds over a healthy weight) lost about three years of their life expectancy.

40-year-old female non-smokers who were obese (about 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight) lost seven years of their lives; obese men lost 5.8 years.

Smoking cost men and women nearly seven years of life, but being both obese and a smoker cost them 13.5 years.

Source: Agencies

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