DR MIRKIN–BEING SLIGHTLY OVERWEIGHT SHORTENS LIFE
JACK LALANNE
Being Slightly Overweight Shortens Life
By Dr. Gabe Mirkin
See Dr. Pinna’s comments below…
A review of 19 studies covering 1.
5 million people shows that being even a little bit overweight shortens your life and the heavier you are, the more likely you are to die of cancer and heart attacks (New England Journal of Medicine, December 2, 2010). Two-thirds of North American adults are overweight or obese.
Doctors measure overweight with a Body-Mass Index (BMI) number: your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. A normal BMI is 22.5 to 25. Having a BMI of 27.5 increases your chances of dying from a heart attack by 50 percent, and a BMI over 40 increases risk by more than 400 percent. Similar increases in BMI apply to death from cancers.
No Such Thing as Healthy Overweight Men
“There appears to be no such thing as metabolically healthy obesity,” said Dr. Johan Arnlov, author of a 30-year follow up report of 1800 Swedish men showing that overweight middle-aged men are at increased risk for death and heart attacks, even if they do not have metabolic syndrome or diabetes (Circulation, January 19, 2010). Arnlov and his colleagues checked all the men for metabolic syndrome: high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides (fats), low HDL (“good”) cholesterol and a broad waist size (40 inches for men, 35 for women). Metabolic syndrome is the presence of three or more of these risk factors.
Follow-up for 30 years showed that the risk of a heart attack was 52 percent higher in overweight men without metabolic syndrome, 74 percent higher in overweight men with metabolic syndrome, 95 percent higher in obese men without metabolic syndrome and 155 percent higher in obese men with metabolic syndrome.
Reducing Overweight a Little Prolongs Life
Being overweight shortens lives because full fat cells produce immune cells that turn on your immunity to promote inflammation that causes diabetes, heart attacks, cancers, arthritis and other diseases. Losing as few as 10 pounds can reduce an over-active immune system to that of a thin person (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, June 2010).
Exercise Helps to Prevent Weight Gain
The average person spends a lifetime gaining weight and exercise helps to prevent weight gain with aging. Researchers measured BMI and waist circumference in more than 3,400 men and women and followed them for 20 years. The most-active men gained 5.7 pounds less than those least active, and the most-active women gained 13.5 pounds less than the least-active women (JAMA, December 15, 2010). Many other studies show that exercising regularly helps to protect even those who continue to be overweight.
Message: Being even a little bit overweight shortens lives, and exercise helps to prevent weight gain with aging.
Dr. Pinna says…
I do not entirely agree with Dr. Mirkin’s conclusions.
There are many people who live to be over 100 years old
and who do not exercise.
This is a fact.
Some eat a horrible diet as well.
The first step in living long is choosing good genetic parents.
If they lived long, your chances are elevated as well.
An excellent example of this is the story of Jack LaLanne.
Jack Lalanne was a famous health guru. He trained daily and
ate food fastidiously. He lived to be 96 years old.
His brother, who never trained, lived to be 97 years old!
His mother, who never trained, lived to be 89 years old!
From all my research, I can tell the reader that Longevity
relies on many factors beyond diet and exercise.
Longevity relies on mental health as well as physical
health.
Religious people live longer than non-religious people.
Asian monks, who do not exercise but pray daily, have a long
life expectancy.
A belief in God and the spiritual world enhances
your nervous system and reduces blood pressure.
Meditation, thinking about the universe, introduces
a calmness in your life.
Eliminating fear from your thoughts is very important.
This is done by developing a World View (Weltanschauung)
that shows man as a small insignificant part of the totality of life.
Also, having strong family ties is super important.
Loners die early.
Even having a pet is important. The individual must
think of others and not only himself or herself.
All these factors are important, beyond diet and
exercise, in increasing life expectancy.
As for diet, more important than what you eat,
is the quantity that you eat. Assuming you eat the
necessary nutrients, if you reduce the caloric content
so that you have Caloric Restriction, your chances
of longevity is increased. This is a scientifically
proven fact. You should be skinny!
Exercise does no harm but it is not a
prerequisite to longevity.
