0000000000620117
AUTHOR
Stephanie A. Studenski
Obesity in Aging and Art
THIS issue of Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences highlights new findings on obesity in older persons and its consequences for health and function (1,2,3). The obesity epidemic is spreading rapidly in both developed and developing countries, and perspectives on the negative effects of overweight and obesity abound in recent medical literature. What do we know so far about obesity over the lifetime? Obesity does not spare older persons (4). Obese older persons experience a wide range of negative consequences, including metabolic abnormalities, arthritis, pulmonary diseases, cataracts, cancer, impaired mobility, disability, and mortality. Given the already extensive knowledge base, why a…
A Research Agenda: The Changing Relationship Between Body Weight and Health in Aging
It is increasingly recognized that changes in weight and body composition with age are strongly connected with health status and physical function. Aging is typically associated with reductions in total and lean mass, so that in the last few years of life, older people frequently report having lost weight and strength (1–3). We know only a few important facts about this process. On average, muscle mass declines with age, and even in older persons with stable weight, muscle is replaced by fat over time (4,5). Increasing fatty infiltration of muscle tissue is associated with decreasing muscle strength (6). The general pattern of weight change over the lifetime is that weight increases through…