Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Watch our kid's weight....


I read this article in the local newspaper, it is a research paper on weight gain in early life that leads to physical disabilities in older adults. The research was carried out by the Sticht Center on ageing at the School of Medicine, Wake Forest University
Dr. Denise Houston is an Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the School of Medicine and an expert on ageing and nutrition. He said "In both men and women, being over weight put them at greater risk of developing mobility limitation at old age, the longer they had been over weight, the greater the risk"

They analysed information from 2,845 participants. Women with a BMI of 25 or above between the mid 20s to their 70s were nearly 3 times more likely to develop mobility limitation than women who are normal weight throughout. The risk for men was slightly less-they were about 1.6 times.

Carrying extra weight can strain joints, hinder exercises and lead to chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease, Dr.Houston said.

The data suggest that intervention to prevent overweight and obesity in young and middle aged adult may be useful in preventing or delaying the onset of mobility limitations later in life.

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