Daily HealthBeat Tip

Dying too young

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Being overweight at 18 is bad enough, but a study indicates worse may come � the extra weight might take years off people's lives.

Rob van Dam of the Harvard School of Public Health looked at mortality of women who, by their own height and weight reports, weighed too much at 18. The study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Women who were moderately overweight were 1.6 times as likely to die prematurely, and women who were obese were almost three times as likely to die prematurely, as compared with women who were lean at age 18." (10 seconds)

Causes of death included cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Van Dam says teens need to be active and avoid junk food, and that parents and schools should help them do it.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 11, 2006

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