RESEARCH
Stay at healthy weight to enjoy old age
September 30, 2009
Trish Crawford
LIVING REPORTER
Doris Grinspun is a poster girl for healthy middle-aged living.
At 56, the trim executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario carries 116 pounds on her 5 foot-4 frame and takes no pills except vitamins.
"I'm a workaholic but I know how to manage my stress," says Grinspun, who doesn't smoke and exercises regularly. "I try to role model healthy living to nurses."
By staying at a healthy weight, Grinspun is improving the odds of having a healthy old age, according to a study released Tuesday by the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.
Obesity at middle age reduces the chances of a healthy elderly life by 79 per cent, study author Qi Sun says. A specialist in nutritional epidemiology, he also found that women who were already overweight at the age of 18 and gained more than 22 pounds had the worst health outcomes. The healthiest elderly women had maintained a stable weight in adulthood.
The study was published online Tuesday and will appear in a print edition of the British Medical Journal later.
While the link between obesity and mortality is well-established, Sun says, how it affects the elderly has not been as well studied.
All of the 17,000 subjects are nurses who participated in the U.S. Nurses Health Study, which began in 1976. By 2000, when their average age was 70, the women were again surveyed about their health.
Eleven diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart failure, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and kidney failure were tracked in the subjects.
Noting that researchers were studying healthy survival, not longevity, Sun says medical science can keep people alive but that doesn't guarantee a healthy elderly life.
The study defined people with a body mass index (BMI) over 25 as overweight and over 30 as obese.
"Women need to keep a healthy body weight to enjoy a healthy later life," he says. "The optimal situation is that you are lean, healthy (weight) at 18 and keep lean throughout adulthood."
This goal is difficult to achieve for many people, he allows, adding, "It is hard."
Just how hard is shown by the fact that the study subjects are all nurses, educated women with health information readily available but, in some cases, they still failed the battle of the bulge.
While the percentage of middle-aged nurses who were overweight or obese (23 per cent) was much lower than the general U.S. adult public (60 per cent), Sun says there is room for improvement. His next study will look at the effect exercise has on the health of overweight women.
Dr. Anatoly Langer, cardiologist and chair of the Canadian Heart Research Centre, says it is not news that obesity affects health negatively.
"Obesity by itself is a big problem," says Langer, "but also a red flag to many conditions."
Obese people are more likely to smoke, not exercise and be depressed, says Langer, all of which also affect health.
Marco Di Buono, director of research for the Heart & Stroke Foundation, praises the study for not looking at one disease but many determinants of health, including mental health.
The good news is that people can improve their chances of better health by losing weight, he says, "Healthy behaviours have healthy outcomes.
"For people to not get disease, they have to look at what they are doing and what they are not doing." he says.
Having regular exercise, friends who support healthy lifestyles, good rapport with a family doctor and eating healthily all contribute to better health, he says.
Research shows that obese people who lose even modest amounts of weight have a significant improvement in their blood pressure, he says.
"The vast majority of chronic disease can be prevented. You have the power to do it. It is not a done deal."
Toronto Star
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