Obesity in early 20s might be a death sentence

While childhood obesity might be the talk of the town, young adulthood could be a critical time for maintaining a healthy weight - and staying alive past middle age, a new study reveals.

Danish researchers concluded that obese men in their early 20s have a much higher risk of developing serious health issues like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure as older adults. Even more frightening is that many may not even reach middle age - almost half of the obese study participants had died before reaching age 55.

Obese men eight times more likely to develop diabetes

Researchers studied the health of 6,500 Danish men in their early 20s for 33 years. All of them had been born in 1955 and had registered with the Military Board for a fitness test to gauge their physical suitability for service. Ninety-seven of the men were classified as obese.

The obese men were eight times as likely to develop diabetes as their peers of normal weight, four times as likely to have a fatal blood clot and twice as likely to have high blood pressure, have suffered a heart attack or to have died. In general, this group was three times as likely as normal-weight peers to have any of these health conditions by middle age, giving them an absolute risk of 50 percent - compared their peers' risk of 20 percent.

Diabetes risk increases by 20 percent for each BMI unit increase

For every BMI unit increase, heart attack risk increased by 5 percent, high blood pressure and blood clot risk increased by 10 percent and diabetes risk increased by 20 percent.

"Thus, obesity related morbidity and mortality will, in decades to come, place an unprecedented burden on healthcare systems worldwide," the authors wrote.

The study is published in the journal BMJ Open.

Source: Science Daily