Daily HealthBeat Tip - March 26, 2007

Older and fatter

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Older people today seem to be fatter than in years past. Researchers found that when they compared people in their 70s who were born from 1918 to 1927.

Stephen Kritchevsky of Wake Forest University School of Medicine says it averaged an extra pound for every year past 1918.

The obesity epidemic that began in the late 1970s seems to have a part. Later-born seniors were more likely to have lived through more of the epidemic.

Kritchevsky thinks people should get their weight under control before they hit senior status.

"We are concerned that this trend in increasing body fatness has the potential to reverse decades-long trends in the reductions of disabling diseases." (10 seconds)

The study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 06 2007