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Obesity more dangerous than smoking - Health, Diet and Fitness Today - 07/01/10

Posted: 07/01/2010 at 07:58pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness

Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people's health than smoking, according to results of the longest ongoing health study of adults in the United States – something that is mirrored in the UK, where obesity is also a huge threat to health.

Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco, says the study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the City College of New York. It adds that while smoking rates are starting to decline, obesity now shortens as many or even more healthy lifespans than tobacco use.

"Health impacts of obesity are, in many ways, much larger, than the health impacts of smoking," said Dr. Arya Sharma, chairman for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta.

"Smoking, in the end, is limited to heart disease and cancer."

The study, conducted over 15 years, was based on interviews with more than 3.5 million people and calculations of the number of "quality-adjusted life years" (QALYs) lost to obesity and smoking.

Quality-adjusted life years are a measurement of the quality and quantity of a life lived, and assign higher scores to perfect or good health, and lower scores to illness, injury and death.

Between 1993 and 2008, smoking in American adults declined by 18.5 per cent, while the proportion of obese people increased by 85 per cent, the study says.

Overall, smoking caused more deaths but obesity has a greater impact on illness, said the researchers.

The following statement is perhaps one of the most apt of the whole report:

"It [obesity] hits people at young ages now. We're looking at an epidemic of childhood obesity," Dr Sharma said. "None of the prevention methods that are being implemented are showing any signs of working. To be effective, they would have to be pretty drastic."

Sharma said the study demonstrates that anti-smoking campaigns have been effective, but the same approach can't necessarily be taken to combating obesity.

"The factors causing obesity are so entrenched in our Western lifestyle, from everything starting from how we build our cities and our food policies," he said. "It's not just about going out and eating healthy or exercising more. It is, in fact, very difficult for people to eat healthy and exercise more given the lifestyle that most of us currently have."

"In 2004, the U.S. surgeon general already announced that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the No. 1 public health enemy, but now we have data to support it," Lau said. "I think it's very timely after the Christmas holiday, when we've all put on a few pounds, to be more alerted to the fact that obesity is not something to be dismissed."


Obesity now more dangerous than smoking, says 15 year study

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