Wise Words on Weight and Health

By Walter C. Willett and M.D.
Published on August 1, 2004
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Photo courtesy Fotolia/Mark Hayes
Adding a few pounds here and there during adulthood seems innocuous enough. It has its own catchy moniker — middle-age spread — and was once considered a sign of prosperity and success. It also seems to be an inevitable part of aging, affecting most Americans.

Adding a few pounds here and there during adulthood seems innocuous enough. It has its own catchy moniker — middle-age spread — and was once considered a sign of prosperity and success. It also seems to be an inevitable part of aging, affecting most Americans. In reality, adult weight gain is neither inevitable, nor innocuous. In many cultures, gaining weight during adulthood just isn’t the norm.

Gaining more than a few pounds after your early 20s can nudge you down the path to chronic disease, and the more weight you gain, the harder the push will be. In two large, long-term Harvard studies, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, middle-aged men and women who had gained 11 to 22 pounds after age 20 were up to three times more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and gallstones as their counterparts who gained 5 pounds or less.

Weight Gain Can Lead to Chronic Disease 

Three related aspects of weight — how much you weigh in relation to your height, your waist size and how much weight you gain after your early 20s — increase your risk for:

• a heart attack, stroke or other type of cardiovascular disease
• high blood pressure, high choles- terol and diabetes

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