Overweight and Obesity Shorten Lifespan

Obese and overweight people live shorter lives and live with more chronic diseases, according to a study published in JAMA Cardiology. Researchers examined data for 190,672 participants from The Cardiovascular Disease Lifetime Risk Pooling Project and tracked BMI, cardiovascular disease incidence rates, and mortality. Those with BMIs higher than 24.9 increased their risk for heart disease, developed heart disease earlier in life, and were more likely to die from a cardiovascular event when compared to those with lower BMIs. Researchers observed a higher average number of years spent living with cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese individuals and note that overweight individuals appear to live longer due to earlier onset of the disease.