A recent study out of the US examining the health of women over a 33 year period has produced some alarming results. The results suggested that for every 2.2 pounds gained (over the healthy BMI range) since the age of 18 women’s chances of living past 70 years old in good health are reduced by 5 per cent. The study defined ‘in good health’ as ‘not only being free of chronic disease, but having enough mental and physical ability to perform daily tasks like grocery shopping, vacuuming or walking up a flight of stairs.’

Aviva Must, the professor and chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine, commented on the implications of this study over the long term, “We know we’re extending life span, but we don’t know if we’re extending healthy survival. If one is going to spend the last three decades of one’s life with compromised physical and mental function that may not be the picture of aging we have when we think of living into our 90s.”

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