Over 70 and Overweight

A new Australian study finds that despite the warnings that being overweight will kill you, overweight adults over the age of 70 are less likely to die over a 10-year period than their normal-weight peers. Conflicts with research, the study, published Jan. 28 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggests that being overweight contributes to a long list of health problems, including heart disease.
Lead researcher Leon Flicker, of the University of Western Australia, said in a news release, “”Our study suggests that those people who survive to age 70 in reasonable health have a different set of risks and benefits associated with the amount of body fat to younger people.”  9,200 Australians aged 70 to 75 in 1996 when the study began, Flicker and colleagues looked at a decade’s worth of data regarding their health. The study authors noted that Australia is ranked as the third most obese country in the world after the United States and the United Kingdom.
A measurement that takes weight and height into account is the BMI, the study defined overweight and obesity levels based on body mass index.