Heavier young, sooner dead
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
For an overweight or obese young adult, getting your weight under control might not be something you want to put off. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, June Stevens saw that when she looked at data from 1987 to 2005:
``Being heavy at age 25 had consequences for mortality. People who were very heavy as 25-year-olds did not live as long as people who were of normal weight.'' (10 seconds)
Stevens also says the risk of dying was higher as the amount of weight for a person's height - the body mass index - went up. But she says young adults should be able to reduce the risk by getting their weight down to a healthy level.
The study in the Journal of Adolescent Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.