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PERTH, Australia, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Overweight adults age 70 and older are less likely to die over a 10-year period compared with normal weight adults, Australian researchers say.
Lead researcher Leon Flicker of the University of Western Australia said the finding calls into question current body mass index guidelines for older adults.
PERTH, Australia, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Overweight adults age 70 and older are less likely to die over a 10-year period compared with normal weight adults, Australian researchers say.
Lead researcher Leon Flicker of the University of Western Australia said the finding calls into question current body mass index guidelines for older adults.
The extra amount of fat does provide a margin of nutritional safety when under stress. My 85 year old mom is on the plumper side of the norm. It stood her in good stead when she had intestinal problems last year. After a number of bouts of infections she had surgery to remove a section of intestine. She lost a good deal of weight in the course of her troubles and I noticed her arms looked decidedly skinny, but she got through it and is doing very well again today. Someone who was underweight might not have fared as well.
So much depends on genes really. Research has shown that weight plays a major role in heart attacks;strokes .diabetes and other diseases for me to take that seroiusly.
I saw a comment on another board where the poster said it's more likely that a good sized portion of the overweight pool died before reaching age 70 because of health. This would leave the healthier portion of this pool which would likely live longer, competing against the general normal weight pool. In other words, it comes back to genes as texdav said.
I kind of think this part makes a big difference.
"The benefits were only seen in the overweight category not in those people who are obese, the researchers said."
That would be die of any cause. Straight longevity stats. These are always a count of the number of people in any age group who die in a year compared to the total number of people in that age group. Pretty simple stats.
Obese is quite fat. One can be decidedly pudgy and not clinically obese. I read a stat that also said that the elderly with high blood cholesterol levels had better longevity than those with low cholesterol.
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