Obesity In Middle Age Bodes Ill For Old Age

“Women who are obese in middle age may live to be at least 70 but they are nowhere near as healthy as women who kept in good shape, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. An ongoing giant study of American nurses showed that only about 10 percent who made it to age 70 could be considered in top shape. Women who steadily gained weight from age 18 on ended up in the worst shape, the researchers said. Most had some kind of physical or mental limitation, and more than a third had both chronic diseases and also mental or physical limitations. ‘Given that more and more Americans are surviving to older ages and, at the same time, gaining weight, our results might be particularly important with respect to clinical or public health policies and deserve further investigation and confirmation in additional studies,’ the researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal...

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/09/30/eline/links/20090930elin012.html