What is the obesity paradox in older adults?

The obesity paradox refers to extant evidence showing that obesity in older subjects or in patients with several chronic diseases may be protective and associated with decreased mortality.

What are some explanations for the obesity paradox?

The obesity paradox may be partly explained by the lack of the discriminatory power of BMI to differentiate between lean body mass and fat mass. Higher mortality in the low BMI categories may be due to the sarcopenic obesity that is characterized by low muscle mass (48).

Is there a paradox in obesity?

The obesity paradox is a medical hypothesis which holds that obesity (and high cholesterol, when the more global term “reverse epidemiology” is used) may, counterintuitively, be protective and associated with greater survival in certain groups of people, such as very elderly individuals or those with certain chronic …

How does obesity impact the physical aging process?

They showed that obesity accelerates epigenetic changes associated with aging in the human liver resulting in an apparent age acceleration of 2.7 years for a 10-point increase in BMI (45), supporting the idea that obesity may accelerate the aging process.

What is the poverty obesity paradox?

The paradox is that with rising food insecurity there is a rising obesity. While all segments of the population are affected by obesity, low-income and food insecure people are especially vulnerable. Factors that link low income groups to obesity include:- Lack of awareness of nutritious foods.

What is metabolically healthy obesity?

Metabolically healthy obesity represents a model to study mechanisms linking obesity to cardiometabolic complications. Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) is a concept derived from clinical observations that a subgroup of people with obesity do not exhibit overt cardiometabolic abnormalities.

What is the fit fat paradox?

“The fat-but-fit paradox denotes individuals who are considered obese but have moderate to high [cardiorespiratory fitness], and evidence indicates that fat-but-fit adults do not have a significantly higher risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease than normal-weight, unfit adults,” Christine Delisle Nyström, a …

Does being obese make you look older?

It’s because fat in the face gives the appearance of more volume, which makes the face look fuller and more youthful. When someone loses weight in the face, it makes them lose volume, which in effect can make them look older.

Does being obese make you age faster?

Obesity accelerates the ageing process even more than smoking, according to the largest ever study of the “chromosomal clock” in human cells.

Is obesity related to poverty?

In the United States, obesity is related to poverty, low individual income, and food-insecurity (1).

Are obese people food insecure?

Obesity was found to be more prevalent in food insecure children as well. From kindergarten to grade 3 (the only periods studied), food insecurity was associated with obesity (Arthur, 2017). Furthermore, food insecurity without hunger was related to excess weight in childhood (Metallinos-Katsaras, 2012).

What does the obesity paradox have to do with?

Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez is a world leader in cardiology with research interests in understanding the role of weight, body fat, and heart risks. When asked why the obesity paradox exists he said “Nobody knows the cause. All that we know is that incomplete adjustment (accounting for other disease processes) does not explain it”.

How is obesity a risk factor for aging?

Obesity superimposed on aging represents an additional risk factor for older age groups in which the prevalence of chronic disease as well as the occurrence of complications increases ( 3 – 5 ). The disease burden of high BMI in children (≤18 years of age) has not been addressed in the same detail.

Why is obesity a problem in the United States?

Adipose tissue has been shown to be a pivotal organ in the aging process and in the determination of life span. Owing to the rising prevalence of obesity, especially at younger ages, a potential decline in life expectancy is expected in the U.S. in the 21st century.

How does obesity affect the risk of death?

A systematic review of 40 cohort studies with 250,152 patients found significantly lower risks for total mortality (RR 0.87) and cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.88) in overweight patients ( 3 ). These mortality risks were not increased in obese patients (BMI 30–35 kg/m 2) compared with normal-weight subjects.

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