More On the Cost of Obesity
Via the LEF News, another look at the costs of excess fat: "While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. ... If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese - so fat that their health is in danger. At present around a quarter of adults are obese. The effects of this on the nation's health will be devastating. The report expects type 2 diabetes to rise by 70 per cent, strokes to go up by 30 per cent and a 20 per cent rise in coronary disease. The rates of certain cancers will also go up. The associated chronic health problems will cost an extra Pounds 45.5 billion a year, more than half the amount of money that goes into the entire NHS at the moment. ... the majority of adults are already overweight and that being overweight is now seen as 'normal'." Trends are trends, but insofar as your own health goes, you have all the choice in the world. Altering the trajectory of your own healthy life span by a decade or two could make the difference between living to see the first working rejuvenation therapies - or missing the boat by just a few years.