Weight weighs In Well for Longer Life

Oh what a gem of news which proclaims that a few extra kilos are worth their weight in a bid for a longer life.

It applies to men and women who are slightly plump and not the obese, who face a raft of health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

US Government researchers have collated results from almost 100 studies to reveal the surprising finding that people of a normal weight will actually die younger than weightier people.

Those dreaded scales which expose a few extra kilos carry a new message that mean plump people actually have more fat reserves to call upon when they lose weight when ill health hits. They also believe fat reserves could also help older people survive falls without serious injury.

Researchers added that this does not apply to obese or grossly overweight people, who are about a third more likely to die during the research period than those who were slightly overweight.

The findings carry a lot of weight (!) because the US government researchers studied 91 previous research papers from around the world involving millions of men and women.

Researchers noted people’s body mass index at the beginning of the study and how likely they were to have died by the end of the time period.

Of course this is not new news because a renowned world gerontologist also gave the same message at an “Ageing Successfully” lecture at the University of Adelaide two years ago.

“If you remember one thing from this lecture,” he said at the beginning of the lecture. “It is that if you are over 60 and not obese, do not try to lose wieght – you just might need it.”

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