Study: Obesity Alone Is Risk Factor For Illness

Can you be fat and healthy?

A new study found that if you're overweight or obese in middle age -- even if you have good cholesterol and blood pressure levels -- you're at increased risk for illness in old age.

The study, published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that obesity itself is a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, even if the person otherwise appears healthy.

Researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago studied the health histories of more than 17,000 Chicagoans, whose health had been tracked for about 30 years. They found a connection between being overweight or obese in middle age and hospitalization and death after age 65.

"Even for those who didn't have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, but who were overweight or obese in middle age, they were at much higher risk of being hospitalized for heart disease or diabetes or even dying from it in older age," said Dr. Lijing Yan, of Northwestern University and Peking University in China.

Yan said the study provides one more reason for people to pay more attention to their weight, even people who are overweight and think they're healthy.