Being overweight or obese may take years off your life, even if you don’t have heart disease or cancer, according to a new study of nearly 1.5 million people.
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It might seem obvious that carrying too much weight can pose health risks and contribute to an earlier death. In recent years, however, some studies have suggested that being overweight has no effect on mortality, and may actually reduce the risk of dying at an earlier age.
The findings and size of the new study, which was conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, should settle the debate over the relationship between excess weight and the risk of early death, says Ali Mokdad, Ph.D., a professor of global health at the University of Washington, in Seattle.
“Hopefully we can put this to rest and focus on what we need to do in order to help people get healthy and live longer,” says Mokdad, who has studied obesity and mortality but was not involved in the new research.
