Losing Weight Can Save Your Life

Losing Weight Can Save Your Life(Senior Spirit Newsletter, December 2014)

As almost every older adult knows, it’s hard to keep the weight off. As we age, we lose lean body mass, which lowers our metabolism; so we need to eat less while being careful to maintain enough nutrients to stay healthy. For older folks, thicker waistlines result from eating as little as 50 more calories a day. That’s equivalent to one slice of cracked-wheat bread.Being grossly overweight is not just a problem with our clothes being too tight or a wardrobe transition to “fuller” fashions. Obesity is now an indicator of earlier death as well as a cause of many preventable diseases.  Health issues caused by obesity include (from: “Obesity in Older Adults,” Online Journal of Issues in Nursing,):

• Cardiovascular disease. Obesity is a major underlying factor contributing to hardening of the arteries, which causes heart attacks, strokes and peripheral vascular disease (the latter affecting the circulatory system outside of the brain and heart). All together these afflictions come under the heading of "cardiovascular disease," the No. 1 cause of death in America.
• Diabetes. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes. Even a 15-pound weight gain can increase a person’s risk of diabetes by 50 percent.
• Cancer. Twenty-five to 30 percent of several major cancers, including breast (postmenopausal), colon, kidney and esophageal, have been linked to obesity and physical inactivity. Obese men are more likely to develop cancer of the colon, rectum or prostate than men who are not obese. Cancers of the gallbladder, uterus, cervix or ovaries are more common in obese women compared with non-obese women.
• Respiratory problems. In obese patients, lungs decrease in size. Both the increased weight on the chest wall of obese patients and the difficulty experienced in lifting the heavy chest wall when breathing may contribute to poor respiration.
• Arthritis and osteoarthritis. For the older person with osteoarthritis, the leading cause of disability in older adults, the most important risk factor that can be modified is obesity. A high BMI is an associated risk factor for knee osteoarthritis in older persons. Obesity, or even being overweight, increases the load placed on joints, especially the knee and hip joints. Breakdown in cartilage, resulting from the increased weight on joints, may result in pain and further functional disability.
• Cognitive functioning.  Although our memory and our ability to process information are known to deteriorate with age, studies show that they worsen more rapidly in the population affected by obesity.

What You Can DoExperts say that making even small lifestyle changes can have an impact. The Diabetes Prevention Program found that losing just 5 to 7 percent of your body weight and doing moderately intense exercise (like brisk walking) for 150 minutes a week may prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.To counteract muscle loss due to aging, experts recommend resistance training with muscle-strengthening exercise twice a week. Strength training helps not only muscles but bones, both areas of increasing vulnerability in older adults. In addition, flexibility and balance exercises can be helpful for those at risk for falls. Building up aerobic capacity and endurance should also be a long-term goal.To avoid injuries, exercise should be started at a low intensity and gradually progress over several weeks or months to a more vigorous level. Walking is a good place to begin because it’s gentle on the joints. What matters is the amount of time and distance you walk, not how fast.  Walking just one mile burns 100 calories.Losing weight is also a mental challenge that often involves small changes. Planning and creating new habits with diet and exercise can be more important than sheer will power. Research shows many benefits including improvements in several risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and improved mobility.Image courtesy of  m_bartosch at FreeDigitalPhotos.net