PRACTICALLY ACTIVE: Mortality can be a weighty problem

Being overweight does not diminish your worth, but it takes a helluva toll on your sense of worth.

— Author Tony Sorenson

In junior high, there was a choir teacher, probably in her late 30s or early 40s, who was overweight. It didn't diminish her talent, skills or appeal to the students. Over the next couple of years, the teacher lost weight and looked healthier.

A few years later, I was shocked to hear she had died. I figured that losing weight would have helped her be healthier and added years to her life. Of course, I don't know what she died of. She could have been ill. But to my young mind, it didn't make sense. Could something that should make you live longer actually hasten your death?

In 2016, statistics showed that 38% percent of U.S. women and 36% of U.S. men were diagnosed as clinically obese. One tool for assessing obesity is a body mass index (BMI) reading. It is a person's weight divided by his or her height. BMI is not alone a reliable health assessment: Muscle weighs more than fat. Some muscular people can have a high BMI, but not have health risks, and some lightweight people can have more fat than muscle mass.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email with a link to a story titled "Losing Weight Later in Life Could Increase Risk of Premature Death." I pondered the idea and immediately thought of that teacher.

I found a similar article on the website of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about a study by researchers from Tongji Medical College in China that was published in the British Medical Journal. The study explored the association between weight changes from youth to adulthood to mortality. They gathered data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual assessment that gauges the health of Americans. The team examined more than 36,000 adults age 40 and above, taking note of their weight at various ages.

As you would figure, those who were overweight and remained overweight throughout adulthood had the highest risk of premature death. People who put on weight in their mid-20s into middle age were also more likely to die early, compared to those who maintained a healthy weight throughout life.

In the study, those with stable obesity and those who lost weight so they dropped from obese to not-obese in middle to late adulthood had a 20% to 30% higher mortality risk, respectively.

But the scientists didn't evaluate whether the weight loss in later life was intentional or not. Unintentional could be from diseases such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease. Their conclusion was that "maintaining normal weight across adulthood is important for preventing premature death later in life."

The study's author, An Pan, is a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the college. He notes that there is a limited amount of research on this topic, and a lack of available analysis concerning the actual cause of the weight loss in later life — whether it is intentional and worked for, or from illness.

Pan's takeaway message from the study is:

■ We should focus on a healthy lifestyle in our older years, with weight being secondary.

■ We should work to avoid weight gain when we are young.

But losing weight can be downright hard.

A recent University of Cambridge study that was published in the PLOS Genetic Journal compared the DNA of 1,622 thin volunteers, 1,985 severely overweight people and a normal-weight group of 10,433. They found that thin people have genetics on their side.

Using genome-wide genotype data, they found that "persistent healthy thinness, similar to severe obesity, is a heritable trait." You can probably inherit it from your mother, father or even a grandparent or someone even further removed.

"Genetics play an important role in determining somebody's weight, but we don't want people to think that's the only thing that determines weight," said Dr. Mir Ali, a general and bariatric surgeon at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in California. "There are things that can be done, regardless of genetics."

Email me at:

rboggs@adgnewsroom.com

Style on 11/11/2019

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