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Want
to Live to Age 90? Watch Your Weight at 21
Maintaining a healthy weight during the young adult years
and staying physically active later in life may be the secret
to longer life, a team of California researchers reported.
They found that elderly people who reported weighing the
least at age 21 and those who regularly participated in
physical exercise were more likely than their peers to live
to see their ninetieth birthday.
Previous research has indicated that weight, body mass index
-- a measure of weight in relation to height -- and exercise
are associated with better health and a lower risk of death,
but few studies have investigated whether this is also true
for older adults -- those in their tenth decade of life.
"Our study extends findings of the benefits of exercise
and healthy weight to late life," Drs. Maria M. Corrada
and Annlia Paganini-Hill told Reuters Health in an e-mail
interview. The researchers, both of the University of California,
Irvine, conducted the study along with Dr. Claudia H. Kawas.
"These findings are exciting," Corrada and Paganini-Hill
added, "because they suggest ways an individual can
take control and extend his or her own life."
More than 10,000 adults who were 75 years old, on average,
were surveyed and followed for more than 20 years. They
answered questions about their height, weight, weight at
age 21, body mass index and their level of outdoor exercise.
By the end of the study period, more than 6,700 study participants
had died before reaching age 90, and 3,636 people had survived
to age 90 or older.
Seniors who reported weighing the most at age 21 were more
likely to die before age 90 than those who reported weighing
less, study findings show. In fact, the risk of dying before
age 90 increased with every five-pound increase in weight
at 21 years of age.
"Being overweight in young adulthood is detrimental
to survival to very old age," according to Corrada
and Paganini-Hill.
Further, elderly men and women with the highest body mass
indexes were more likely to die before age 90 than those
with a lower body mass index, study findings indicate.
Adults who reported exercising at least 30 minutes each
day, however, were 24 percent to 31 percent less likely
to die before age 90 than their less active peers.
"Regular daily exercise during late adulthood is beneficial,
improving survival to very old age," Corrada and Paganini-Hill
said. They added that the benefits of regular exercise were
not limited to just helping the seniors maintain a healthy
weight.
"Although exercise is known to help maintain ideal
weight," they said, "exercise increased the chance
of survival beyond its effect on weight and body mass."
These findings remained true even when the researchers took
into consideration the study participants' history of several
health problems, including high blood pressure, heart attack,
diabetes and cancer -- diseases known to be prevalent among
the elderly and associated with a higher risk of death --
according to Corrada and Paganini-Hill.
The seniors' use of vitamin supplements and other nutrition
habits and health practices did not appear to greatly increase
their chances of surviving to age 90, study findings show.
The findings were presented during the 55th annual meeting
of the American Academy of Neurology, held in Honolulu,
Hawaii.
Article Source: Reuters Health
Article Author: Charnicia E. Huggins
Net Reference 89
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