DO BIG MEN LIVE LONG?

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 22 March 1911, Page 2

DO BIG MEN LIVE LONG?

Are you an underweight or overweight ? That is to say, do you turn the scale at the proper number of pounds in proportion to your stature ? According: to your inches, so you should weigh a certain amo-int, and to he above or below that standard means certain risks to health and a danger of cutting life short. That, at any rate, is the conclusion which Brandreth Symonds, M.D., chief medical adviser to one of the largest New York insurance companies, has come, to after a careful investigation of the relation of height, and weight to longevity. According to a table of height and weight at different ages, which l)r. Symonds has proved to be an exact stand:;rd for the United States and Canada, a man sft. 6in. in height should, between the ages of twentyfive and twenty-nine, weigh l-121b., or just over lOst. • and as his age increases he should, in every four years, add two or three pounds to his weight until he is fifty. WHAT MEN AND WOMEN SHOULD WEIGH. Thus between thiry and thirty-four he should weigh 1451b., including clothes ; between thirty-five and thirty-nine, 1471b.; from forty to forty-nine, 1511b. ; from fifty to fiftyfour, 1531b. And for every inch a man is above sit, Gin. there should be a corresponding increase in weight—about three per cent. The man who measures sft. Tin. should, at twenty-five, weigh 1471b., and increase as his age increases in the same ratio as the man who is sft. Gin. From sft. Bin. to Gft. Sin. there should be an average increase in weight of 41b. for every inch between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine, the weight increasing steadily with age until fifty in the case of middle-sized men and to sixty with tall men. In a similar manner, according to the tables included in Dr. Symonds's interesting article, published in a recent issue of ' McClure's Magazine,' the weight of women should increase according to height and age. Women attain their maximum weight more uniformly than men, and after the age of twenty-five increase in weight more rapidly than men. Thus, a man of sft. Gin. gains 111b. between the ages of twentyfive and fifty, while a woman of the same height gains 181b. during that time.

HEAVY MEN'S DANGERS. Insurance companies, which judge health by height and weight, do not consider a person overweight unless he is more than 20 per cent, above the standard. For example, at the age of forty the standard weight of a man sft. Gin. is 1501b., and he would not be regarded as an overweight unless he is more than 20 per cent, above the standard. For example, at the age of forty the standard weight of a man sft. Gin. is 1501b., and he would not be regarded as an over-weight until he had passed 1801b., which is 20 per cent, above his standard. Similarly, a person is not considered an underweight unless he is more than 20 per cent, below the standard. OVERWEIGHTS AND UNDERWEIGHTS. The value of those standards to insurance companies will be obvious when it is mentioned that there are certain diseases peculiar to overweights, they are five times as frequent among the overweights. Amongst the latter, too, organic diseases of the heart show a decided excess, although pneumonia is nearly twice as fatal among underweights as among over-weights. And it is for such reasons as these that the physique of an individual is now being regarded as a fundamental element in his selection as a life insurance risk.—"Tit Bits."