Eating and Lazing Your Way Into a Shorter Life

A great many people eat too many calories and exercise too little. It's not as though the right amounts of either for generally good health are a state secret, but that doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference. Given the inch of luxury, most people will take the mile - and their health, life expectancy, and bank account all suffer for it. We did not evolve for optimal long-term functioning in a high calorie, sedentary environment, and it shows. On this topic, allow me to point you to another couple of examples to add to the long litany of reasons to take better care of the health basics.

Packing on the pounds in middle age linked to dementia

Researchers studied information from the Swedish Twin Registry on 8,534 twins age 65 or older. ... The study found that people who were overweight or obese at midlife had an 80 percent higher risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia in late life compared to people with normal [body mass index]. The results remained the same after considering other factors, such as education, diabetes and vascular disease.

A little belly fat can double the risk of death in coronary artery disease patients

Researchers analyzed data from 15,923 people with coronary artery disease involved in five studies from around the world. They found that those with coronary artery disease and central obesity, measured by waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, have up to twice the risk of dying. That is equivalent to the risk of smoking a pack of cigarettes per day or having very high cholesterol, particularly for men.

This is an age upon the verge of developing biotechnologies of rejuvenation and general repair kits for all forms of damage to human tissue and bodily systems. Maybe you're young enough for the progressive advance of science to rescue you from the consequences of being an overfed, lazy lump ... but why risk it? A ten year difference in your life span or health span could mean missing the boat, dying prior to the advent of new medical technologies capable of repairing the damage that you yourself brought about.

We're all on that same downward slope; why run faster towards the failure of your body and its component systems?

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