2023-04-18 07:00:00
Involuntary weight loss is something that we must monitor in any case, since in many cases it is indicative of a health problem. But in certain demographics, such as those 65 and older, it’s a sign particularly alarming.
This is explained by an article published in the scientific journal JAMA Network by researchers from Monash University (Australia), which indicates that this decrease in body weight in those over 65 years of age is associated with a increased risk of dying prematurely.
Losses of up to 5% of body weight
According to the authors, the work fills an existing gap in the medical literature, since it there was no custom of measuring weight of the relatively healthy older population.
Thus, these researchers carried out a clinical study in which they examined almost 17,000 adults aged at least 70 in Australia and more than 2,000 adults in the United States, who were weighed between 2010 and 2014 as part of their current medical examinations. .
Thus, they concluded that even 5% weight loss they increase the risk of dying, an effect that was especially notable in older men.” In fact, weight loss was associated with all-cause mortality and an increase in many statistically very important causes of death, such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases.
A warning sign
Precisely, one of the points that the authors of the study highlight is the fact that the population studied in the trial was initially sanesince all those with significant diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, dementia, physical disabilities or chronic diseases, had been excluded.
This makes the conclusions especially surprising and clinically important, underscoring the importance of control weight changes from the consultation for no apparent reason.
And it is that, although the experiment does not indicate in any case a causal relationship, it does illuminate that weight loss is often a symptom of potentially lethal pathologies, with which it should be considered in this population as a particularly alarming warning.
References
Hussain SM, Newman AB, Beilin LJ, et al. Associations of Change in Body Size With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Healthy Older Adults. JAMA Network Open (2023) doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.7482
#Weight #loss #people #sign #increased #risk #death