Obesity increases the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes
"Obesity knocks 20 years of good health off your life and can accelerate death by eight years," the Mail Online reports.
A study has estimated very obese men aged 20 to 39, with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or above, have a reduced life expectancy of eight years.
This is as a result of their higher risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. For women of this age, the life expectancy is six years less.
What is also worrying is the much larger number of healthy years of life lost because of the chronic illness caused by these two conditions, which are obesity related.
Obesity in this age group is estimated to cause 11 to 19 fewer years of healthy life, which could have a considerable negative impact on a person's quality of life.
This is likely to be an underestimate, however, as it did not take into account other illnesses associated with increased weight, such as certain cancers, liver and kidney diseases.
A truism is that a model is only as good as the data you put into it. Reassuringly, the researchers used a well-regarded data set.
The researchers hope these results can help healthcare professionals give people a greater understanding of how much obesity is putting people at risk of long-term chronic ill health.
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