Obesity may shorten life expectancy up to eight years

Credit: Peter Häger

07 dec 2014--'Tis the season to indulge. However, restraint may be best according to a new study led by investigators at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University. The researchers examined the relationship between body weight and life expectancy. Their findings show that overweight and obese individuals have the potential to decrease life expectancy by up to 8 years. The study, published in the current issue of The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, further demonstrates that when one considers that these individuals may also develop diabetes or cardiovascular disease earlier in life, this excess weight can rob them of nearly two decades of healthy life.

"In collaboration with researchers from the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia our team has developed a computer model to help doctors and their patients better understand how excess body weight contributes to reduced life expectancy and premature development of heart disease and diabetes," says lead author Dr. Steven Grover, a Clinical Epidemiologist at the RI-MUHC and a Professor of Medicine at McGill University.

Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: The Predictors of Health

Dr. Grover and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (from years 2003 to 2010) to develop a model that estimates the annual risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adults with different body weights. This data from almost 4,000 individuals was also used to analyze the contribution of excess body weight to years of life lost and healthy years of life lost.

Their findings estimated that individuals who were very obese could lose up to 8 years of life, obese individuals could lose up to 6 years, and those who were overweight could lose up to three years. In addition, healthy life-years lost were two to four times higher for overweight and obese individuals compared to those who had a healthy weight, defined as 18.5-25 body mass index (BMI). The age at which the excess weight accumulated was an important factor and the worst outcomes were in those who gained their weight at earlier ages.

"The pattern is clear - the more an individual weighs and the younger their age, the greater the effect on their health," Dr. Grover adds. "In terms of life-expectancy, we feel being overweight is as bad as cigarette smoking."

The next steps are to personalize this information in order to make it more relevant and compelling for patients. "What may be interesting for patients are the 'what if?' questions. What if they lose 10 to 15 pounds? Or, what if they are more active? How will this change the numbers?" says Dr. Grover. The research team is now conducting a three year study in community pharmacies across the country to see if engaging patients with this information and then offering them a web-based e-health program will help them adopt healthier lifestyles, including healthier diets and regular physical activity.

"These clinically meaningful models are useful for patients, and their healthcare professionals, to better appreciate the issues and the benefits of a healthier lifestyle, which we know is difficult for many of us to adopt and maintain, Dr. Grover adds.

More information: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, www.thelancet.com/journals/lan… (14)70229-3/abstract

Provided by McGill University Health Centre

"Obesity may shorten life expectancy up to eight years." December 4th, 2014. http://medicalxpress.co

Allergy drugs may fight diabetes, obesity

HONG KONG, 27 july 2009-- Over-the-counter allergy and asthma drugs helped obese, diabetic mice lose weight and control their blood sugar, researchers reported on Monday.

Three other studies strongly linked obesity and type-2 diabetes to a dysfunctional immune system, and researchers said these findings could lead to better drugs or perhaps even vaccines to treat the effects of both conditions.

Rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are surging around the world as people eat more and exercise less. The four studies published in the journal Nature Medicine help explain how obesity might cause diabetes and how the two together can cause organ damage, heart disease and death.

Guo-Ping Shi at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States and colleagues found that mast cells -- the immune cells that get out of control in allergy and asthma -- were abundant in fat tissues of obese and diabetic people and mice.

They created obese and diabetic mice by overfeeding them. Then they gave some of the mice two antihistamines, one called ketotifen fumarate, sold by Novartis AG under the brand name Zaditor and generically available cromolyn.

Both help stabilize mast cells in people with allergy or asthma, Shi said in a statement.

Mice fed a healthy diet improved moderately, while those given either cromolyn or Zaditor showed dramatic improvements. But mice given the drug and switched to a healthy diet showed nearly 100 percent recovery in all areas.

"The best thing about these drugs is that we know it's safe for people," Shi said. "The remaining question now is: Will this also work for people?"

Shi will test both in monkeys.

IMMUNE RESPONSE

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease -- one in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. The studies in Nature Medicine suggest that type 2 diabetes and obesity also involve the immune system.

Satoshi Nishimura of the University of Tokyo and colleagues found a surge in immune cells or lymphocytes called CD8 T-cells in obese mice fed a high-fat diet.

Mice engineered to be deficient in CD8 T-cells had markedly less inflammation, even when fed a high-fat diet.

"So if we can find the molecule that triggers (the production of) CD8 T-cells, we can block or inhibit it (the molecule) using drugs," Nishimura said in a telephone interview.

Harvard pathology professor Diane Mathis and colleagues found T-cells were abundant in the abdominal fat tissue of normal-weight humans and mice, but absent in obese and diabetic humans and mice.

Obese mice and people had another class of immune cells called macrophages in their fat while normal weight people and animals did not have them.

This could cause the body to stop using insulin correctly -- a hallmark of type 2 diabetes, said Harvard's Steven Shoelson, who worked on the study.

"It's possible that the inflammation caused by macrophages results in insulin resistance," Shoelson said. T-cells may help control this, he said.

Michael Dosch of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues made similar findings. It may be possible to vaccinate people against type 2 diabetes, they suggested.

Tackle obesity like smoking: researcher

By Michael Kahn
15 may 2008--Tackling the global obesity epidemic will require governments to take similar action to that many used to curb smoking, a top researcher said on Wednesday.
This could include regulations that restrict how companies market "junk" food to children and requirements for schools to serve healthy meals, said Professor Boyd Swinburn, a public health researcher who works with the World Health Organisation.
"The brakes on the obesity epidemic need to be policy-led and governments need to take centre stage," Swinburn, a researcher at Deakin University in Australia, told Reuters at the 2008 European Congress on Obesity.
"Governments have to lead the way they did with the tobacco epidemic. We need hard-hitting messages."
Action is urgent because, aside from sub-Saharan Africa, nearly every country has suffered a dramatic rise in the number of obese people in the past 30 years. That increase has likely been a tripling in many industrialized nations, he said.
The World Health Organisation classifies around 400 million people around the world as obese, 20 million of them children under the age of five.
Obesity raises the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart problems, and is a problem that is piling pressure on already overburdened national health systems.
Swinburn says the food industry has largely driven the epidemic with a stream of processed products that are cheaper and better-tasting but filled with unhealthy ingredients.
Lack of physical fitness and exercise, while important, have played only a small role in explaining why the number of obese people has soared in recent decades, he said.
"Commercial drivers around food have been the biggest influence over the past 30 years," he said. "The product, the price, the promotion and the placement has changed dramatically.
Swinburn urged governments to introduce policies similar to those taken against smoking. These have included tightly controlled marketing to children and regulations warning of the dangers of smoking on cigarette packages.
Obesity is persistent despite people being increasingly aware of the risks of being overweight, demonstrating the problem requires direct government intervention, he said.
"Governments have a number of ways to influence the behaviors of a population," Swinburn said.
Among anti-obesity measures taken, New York has banned artery-clogging trans-fats from city restaurants and is forcing fast-food chains to display calorie counts on their menu boards.
Britain plans to spend 75 million pounds ($145 million) on a campaign encouraging healthy lifestyles as part of a wider anti-obesity strategy including compulsory cooking lessons for children and the promotion of exercise.