According to research presented at Endo 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, women under 50 who have been obese for ten years may be up to 60% more likely to have these illnesses.
According to Alexander Turchin, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, the increased risk for men under 65 is as high as 57%.
However, he noted that the association did not appear in males over 65 or women over 50.
Results also appeared to indicate that a brief period of obesity was not linked to a higher risk of heart.
This meant that “obesity at any given point in time does not’seal’ one’s fate,” according to Professor Turchin.
He continued: “If obesity is treated in a timely fashion, its complications can be prevented.”
While it is well established that being overweight raises the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, among other conditions, Prof. Turchin noted that research has not yet shown if a person’s duration of obesity was a contributing factor.
According to him, the results are significant because they demonstrate that younger people would have better health outcomes if they receive obesity treatment sooner.
The group examined data from two US-based studies: the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
