Tag Archives: life span

This Just In! Obesity Reduces Lifespan

Posted on January 12, 2015 | Comments Off on This Just In! Obesity Reduces Lifespan
I'm worried about the kid's future health

I’m worried about the kid’s future health, too

MedPageToday has the details. A quote:

In a computer modeling study, very obese men lost just over 8 years of life compared with normal-weight men, and very obese women lost as many as 6 years, Steven Grover, PhD, of McGill University, and colleagues reported online in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

They also found that very obese men and women (defined as a body mass index [BMI] of 35 and higher) lost about 19 years of healthy life, defined as living free of chronic disease such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Note that “very obese” in this context has a specific definition: body mass index 35 or higher. Calculate yours.

The number of life years lost to obesity and disease were highest for those who were very obese in young adulthood and presumably stayed obese for years. In other words, becoming very obese at age 25 is more threatening than onset 60.

I first got interested in weight loss in the 1990s when I had an office-based primary care medical practice. It was obvious that many of the medical problems I was treating were related to years of obesity. Believe me, you’re much better off preventing those problems via diet and exercise.

Click for The Lancet study abstract.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Comments Off on This Just In! Obesity Reduces Lifespan

Posted in Longevity, Overweight

Tagged , , ,

Fruits and Vegetables May Increase Lifespan, Decrease Cancer and Heart Disease

Posted on May 22, 2014 | 2 comments

MedPageToday has some of the details.  A quote:

The largest benefits were seen in people who ate seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day compared with those who ate less than one serving, with the higher level of consumption associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 0.67; 95% CI 0.58-0.78), lead researcher Oyinlola Oyebode of University College London, and colleagues, reported online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

diabetic diet, paleobetic diet, low-carb diet

Prepping for bacon brussels sprouts 

The population under study was English. In addition to lower risk of death, the heavy fruit and vegetable consumers had lower rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Click for the actual research report.

If seven servings a day seems like a lot, note that a typical serving is only half a cup. You’ll get those with the Paleobetic Diet.

Steve Parker, M.D.

2 Comments

Posted in Fruit, Heart Disease, Longevity, Vegetables

Tagged , , , , , ,

Is Our Modern Food Supply Killing Us?

Posted on May 5, 2014 | 1 comment
paleobetic diet

John Deere combine harvesting wheat

Well, it’s complicated.

Many in the blogosphere wring their hands and pace to-and-fro worrying about GMO food, food preservatives, HFCS, sugar, gluten, artificial chemical additives in our food, arsenic in our water, mercury in our fish, factory-farmed food animals, industrial seed oils, hormones in our milk, antibiotics in our meat, pasteurization of milk, etc.

Consider this: worldwide life expectancy at birth has increased from 52 in 1960 to 70 in 2010. So just how bad can the food supply be?

I wonder how many items in the list above will turn out like dietary cholesterol, saturated fat, and total fat. That is, not a big deal.

You can argue that life expectancy would be even longer if we had better food. I’m sure that’s true to a degree. You can argue that there have been myriad helpful cultural and technological changes, irrespective of the food supply. Very true.

I’m just trying to put things in a perspective. An 18-year improvement in life expectancy over a half century is a big deal. Regardless of how you feel about wheat, Norman Borlaug deserves some credit.

Steve Parker, M.D.

1 Comment

Posted in Longevity

Tagged , , , , ,