Science Article Summary 4

Boyles, S. Overweight older people live longer. WebMD. 2010.

Researchers are saying that adults that are of age 70 or older are living longer if they are a little overweight. This seems a little strange since doctors are always telling overweight people that they need to lose weight and be of normal BMI.

Leon Flicker, the lead researcher, found that the BMI guidelines are not useful for adults over 70 years of age. The research shows that elderly people who do not have diabetes, osteoarthritis, or any other disease which is worsened by extra pounds are benefitting from the extra pounds for a few reasons. First, the extra pounds allow for a stronger body to deal with surgeries and different stresses to the body. We are not talking about an excessive amount of extra weight but 5 or 10 extra pounds will help.

In one study, the elderly that were overweight were 17% less likely to die compared to normal weight people. Also, this study showed that underweight people had the highest risk of death.

This study also compared the effects of exercise. Women who did not do any exercise were 2 times as likely to die, then the women who exercised. This is the same for men. Sedentary men are 28% more likely to die. Flicker believes that the World Health Organization should change their Body Mass Index guidelines according to his results from this study.