Elderly weight...

[Externet]

It seems very unusual to see people in their seventies and beyond being obese.

Is it because at a certain age something reverses and shrinkage and weight loss takes over ? Or because all the obese already died never making it to that age ?

 

Do you know elders who were obese at certain point in their lives and 'naturally' greatly lost the overweight ?

Edited April 29, 2010 by Externet

[Genecks]

Obesity is often linked to diabetes.

 

If a person often has bad eating habits, takes in a lot of sugar, etc, and forms diabetes, then that can be with the person for life. From there, the person is not only diabetic but obese. And with age, mutations in DNA can occur in the mitochondria and cell nucleus. As the person age, external and internal factors compound.

 

In general, having diabetes would somewhat be more detrimental if the cells cannot easily take in glucose. But then again, it could be seen as a highlight of aging, because then cells that cannot easily take in glucose would go through apoptosis; and perhaps the remaining cells would have the good DNA. That might be a kind of cellular darwinism that occurs, but I'm unsure of that (I've been knocking around this idea of cellular darwinism as of late).

 

I'm not sure of the statistics, but you might find that a lot of people who are obese often die early. Many health complications come with being obese for long periods of time.

[Externet]

Thanks.

Is it possible to leave the diabetes aside from the discussion or is it such a factor that must be considered in the response? -Taken as if none of the middle age obese nor the elderly cases had diabetes, per example-

 

I have met several elderly that were somewhat fat at middle age and lost the overweight into their late sixties.

Including my father, not obese but bellyful, lost all the belly in his early seventies. (and never had diabetes)

Just wondering what goes on, -if something goes on- 'naturally' at that age respect to weight loss.

[Genecks]

Obesity can cause fat to clog the arteries and lead to decreased blood flow, thus decreased blood flow means a decreased amount of nutrients for cells, thus leading to cellular death. And the increase in cellular death amongst various important organs can cause larger physical break down of the body. I think obesity is often linked to heart attacks. Decreased blood flow is common among the elderly. Blood flow becomes an important factor as a person ages. Many elderly will have purple toes and a hint of blue to their body parts if they are not active enough. As such, decreased blood flow might eventually cause a restriction that will lead into a future amputation.

 

In general, I think most people die from bacterial infections in old age.

If obese people are not active, that means their lymphatic system is not moving around so much.

If it's not moving around so much, that means it is not actively being used to attack possible bacterial infections.

 

At an increased age, the cells in the body may have undergone changes that deter it from dealing with the obesity/overweightedness as it had once done before. As said earlier, mutations occur as a person ages.

Edited May 4, 2010 by Genecks

[Skye]

There's a loss of appetite that occurs frequently with ageing and can lead to weight loss and malnutrition. I think the biochemical basis is still being researched.

[Double K]

Obesity (excluding genetic disorders, thyroid etc) is generally caused by sedintary lifestyle. As you get older you tend to stop doing as much exercise and continue your eating habits as they were.

 

Weight gain is a pretty simple formula

energy in > energy out = weight gain.

 

To go back to thyroid though, there is evidence to suggest that a poorly functioning thyroid is more likely with age and this will affect obesity.