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Obesity can shave 8 years off lifespan; daily aspirin hurts women
– Reported December 06, 2014
Extreme obesity can cut life expectancy by nearly a decade and deprive adults of nearly two decades of healthy life, a new study says.
Researchers in Canada found that ailments associated with obesity — cardiovascular disease and diabetes — dramatically reduce lifespans.
The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, is based on an analysis of data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted between 2003 and 2010. The scientists looked at the role that obesity plays in life expectancy of adults 20 to 79 years old.
They found that overweight people — with a body mass index between 25 and 30 — had a life expectancy up to three years shorter than thinner individuals. People with a BMI between 30 and 34, which is considered obese, lost up to six years of life. That was extended to eight years for people with a BMI of 35 or more.
The effect of excess weight on younger people had the greatest effect.
“The pattern is clear, said Dr. Steven Grover, lead author and professor of medicine at McGill University. “The more an individual weighs and the younger their age, the greater the effect on their health.”
In other news, researchers found that an aspirin a day could do middle-aged women more harm than good, the Telegraph reports.
Published in the journal Heart, the study followed 30,000 women over 17 years. They found that the protective effect of downing an aspirin daily was marginal while the risk of stomach bleeding was high.
Previous studies have suggested that thousands of lives could be saved each year if middle-aged adults took aspirin each day.
However this study found that the balance begins to shift with increasing age, suggesting that women over 65 are likely to still benefit from taking an aspirin a day.