HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1942, Page 6

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

— — 1 a THE OVERWEIGHT PROBLEM. SOME CHALLENGING FACTS. By the Health Department.) If you’re one of the Army of overweights. you will be interested in the . following rather challenging facts. They are the results of detailed investigation into the relationship of overweight to mortality. : The fundamental finding is that the } i greater the degree of overweight the greater is the mortality rate. Men who are, for instance, 35% overweight, or more, have a mortality over one and a half limes that of the average weight man. In other words, their death rate is more than three to two. Those only slightly overweight have a mortality only, a little higher than those of average weight. It is considered that the most favourI able build as regards mortality at the various adult ages in men is: Up to 30 years, slight overweight; ages 30 to 39. average weight; 40 to 49 slight underweight; and 50 and over, an appreciable degree of underweight. High blood pressure is over two and a half times ,as common among overweights as among average weights; the death rate of overweights from heart disease and cerebral haemorrhage is one and a half times that of the average weights, and nearly twice that of ] the underweights. Bright’s disease (of the kidneys) is much more prevalent among the overweights, while with diabetes the incidence in the overweight class is two and a half times that in the average weight class, and four times that in the underweight class. But be careful how you reduce. Illadvised methods of weight re-duction may prove more harmful than overweight itself. There must be medical supervision in any plan to reduce.