We've stopped smoking, but we're getting fat. Net loss: eight months of life

[The Straight Story]

We've stopped smoking, but we're getting fat. Net loss: eight months of life



Anyone who's ever quit (or tried to quit) smoking knows that once the puffing stops, the eating begins. And as individual smokers go, so goes the nation: The U.S. has seen smoking rates fall and obesity rates rise in recent decades, and the combination has cut the U.S. life expectancy.

A recent New England Journal of Medicine study of trends in rising obesity and falling smoking rates found that the rising obesity rate has "overwhelmed the positive effects of declines in smoking in multiple scenarios." The study predicts: "If past obesity trends continue unchecked, the negative effects on the health of the U.S. population will increasingly outweigh the positive effects gained from declining smoking rates."

Life Expectancy Down by Eight Months

The study examined health trends collected from national health surveys to forecast life expectancy and quality of life, assuming a 15-year trend of a 20% decline in smoking would continue. That alone should boost life expectancy: Between 2005 and 2020, a typical 18-year-old American's life expectancy should increase by nearly four months based on the decline in smoking.

But over the past 15 years, body-mass index rates shot up 48%. And assuming this trend also continues, the study predicts that 45% of Americans will be obese by 2020. That reduces the typical 18-year-old's life expectancy by just over a year. With less smoking and more obesity, the net loss to the U.S. life expectancy is more than eight months.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Angry posts are coming

Defending overweight, attacking media images, etc.

[onehandle]

2. Proof positive that smoking should be fought harder than ever.

Seems like smoking starts that whole mess.

[The Straight Story]

3. I think more people should smoke

Creates jobs, gets more people into stores (run out for a pack of smokes, buy a little something else while there), people live shorter lives and therefore help control costs and population.

Plus it is enjoyable and relaxing.

[onehandle]

8. I think more people should start shooting heroin

For all the reasons you list.

[The Straight Story]

10. They don't sell heroin in stores

But if they did I wonder what aisle it would be on?

[NYC_SKP]

27. Crank will help a person lose weight.

But make it harder to get a good date.







eeewwwwwww...

[WillyT]

15. I Agree...

:rofl:

You bad...

:spank:

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[earcandle]

21. Dropping that tax rate by Reagan was the start of our decline. I suppose Nixon was shooting for a

Chinese prison economy. 

[WillyT]

23. Exactly...

:shrug:

[nemo137]

4. Hm. Should I trade in my current healthy-eating plan for cigs?

Probably not.

[slampoet]

5. The body mass index was changed five years ago to cook the stats. This epidemic is manufactured.

[tonysam]

7. The BMI is bunch of garbage anyway. n/t

[dustbunnie]

12. How was it changed? It's simple math.

[Silver Swan]

19. This linked article mentions the definition change.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/health/suddenlysick/sickdefinitions26.html


The BMI calculation has not changed, but the interpretation has. Before 1998, "normal weight" went up to a BMI of 27. After that, the limit was 25. POOF! Millions more became fat overnight.

[dustbunnie]

25. Thanks. :-) I figured the poster meant something like that. But still:

That linked article refers to the "overweight" classification being changed. The OP article talks about obesity, which is where the problems begin. It's okay to be overweight, health wise. The obesity classifications begin at 30. Also, the study cites "rise in body mass indexes" overall, which is what's alarming, not the classification cut off points.

[tonysam]

6. More demonizing of so-called "obesity."

Oh sure weight gain is more hazardous than smoking. Are the quacks now running the medical societies?

[Kalyke]

16. First, obesity has always been more hazardous than smoking.

Even the World Health Organization believes this.

The problem here, however, is that the fanatical anti-smoking lobby has effectively "won" and the government isn't receiving as much in taxes (or has calculated that it soon won't be) off cigarettes, so they're going after trans-fats.

What this ultimately proves is that sin taxes have an increasingly smaller point of diminishing returns.

[Marr]

28. "So-called obesity"?

You aren't suggesting that obesity is a myth, or that people carrying 100 extra pounds are just as healthy as people who aren't, are you?

[dustbunnie]

9. The picture of the woman used to illustrate this story is just so sad.

She was already well on her way to losing the ability to walk when that pic was snapped. But there's no way that quitting smoking encourages that kind of weight gain. That's an example of a whole other addiction.

[Ernesto]

11. Lets go to the movies!

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/88352-buttered-up--disturbing-new-facts

[elocs]

13. I once read that weight gain after quitting smoking is not universal,

that some actually lose weight and some stay nearly the same weight. I once read about smoking compared with weight gain and to make it apples to apples it was found that you would have to gain 40 pounds to have the equivalent harm of smoking a pack a day.

My goddaughter who recently turned 18 is a heavy smoker but she is also a schizophrenic and up to 90% of schizophrenics smoke. The reason (it is believed) for this is that in reality they are self medicating, that something about the nicotine helps them to think better. That gives them a high rate of heart disease, but an irony is that their lung cancer rate is lower than the national average.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. The Japanese smoke like freight trains, especially the men.

They outlive us. Japanese men live an average of 3 years longer than American men and Japanese women have American women beat by 5 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

[walldude]

31. I participated in a study that claimed that

happiness was the most major factor in a longer life. If you love your family, your job and have many friends it added something like 12 years to your life. At the time I was eating really poorly, had really high cholesterol and was smoking and my life span was still 72 years, supposedly because of my friends, family and job. Which was much better than I thought it would be.

[Hello_Kitty]

32. I could see that. eom

[toadzilla]

33. it's not. just some people trade one addiction for another.

[Arugula Latte]

14. Most of the obesity surge is not from people who've quit smoking, though.

[dana_b]

17. true

empty calories in our processed foods is more like it.

[Hello_Kitty]

20. True, but smokers do tend to weigh less and people have used cigarettes as a food substitute.

"Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" was an ad campaign that targeted women.

[earcandle]

22. I always dropped weight when I smoked, but at least I don't stink like tobacco now or hack and cough

[kenny blankenship]

24. Cancer do eat up a bunch of calories

Feed me Seymour!
Most people who die of cancer have never been skinnier in their adult lives - it's the wonder diet everyone's been waiting for.

[NYC_SKP]

26. I gave up alcohol, then gained weight. But quality of life is better. n/t

[Mojambo]

29. Exercise simply HAS to be a big part of any attempt to quit smoking.

Neither obesity OR smoking is going to extend your life.

Although at least standing next to an obese person isn't going to hurt me, so if I have to choose I say more obesity and less smoking.

[Jamastiene]

30. Oh, this is going to be epic.

:popcorn:

:smoke:

[ElboRuum]

34. Quit hogging the corn.

:popcorn: