Daily HealthBeat Tip

Heavier yet

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

America is growing ever larger. A study supported by the National Institutes of Health projects that, in 30 years, nine of 10 men and seven of 10 women will be overweight.

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine say their projections are not surprising, considering the trends they�ve already seen. And an official of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Denise Simons-Morton, says people need to do something about it:

"This should be a wake-up call to America. It is a major problem and increasing in importance. Even in children we are seeing more obesity and we are seeing diseases in children caused by obesity, like Type 2 diabetes." (11 seconds)

But the NIH says losing just 10 percent of the weight can help overweight or obese people lower the risk to their health.

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: November 11, 2005

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