Thaindian News

London, March 31 (ANI): A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has concluded that for obese seniors, dieting and exercise together are more effective at improving physical performance and reducing frailty than either alone.

Older adults who are obese face severe health risks, including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, which can be compounded by a lack of mobility.

“We wanted to tease apart the effects of dieting and exercise in older people who are obese,” said principal investigator Dennis T. Villareal, adjunct associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“In older adults, obesity exacerbates declines in physical performance and leads to frailty, impaired quality of life and increases in nursing home admissions. Given the increasing prevalence of obesity even among older people, it is important to find ways to combat the problem and help seniors remain healthier and more independent.”

In this study, Villareal and his colleagues evaluated the effects of dieting and exercise in more than 100 obese seniors over a one-year period. Although weight loss alone and exercise alone improved physical function by about 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively, neither was as effective as diet and exercise together, which improved physical performance by 21 percent.

At the study’s outset, participants had evidence of frailty and impaired physical function based on their Physical Performance Test and on measures of their peak aerobic capacity using an exercise stress test and a questionnaire about their physical function.

“In older, obese people, it may be more important to improve physical function and quality of life, rather than to reverse or treat risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” said Villareal, now chief of geriatrics at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System and professor of medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, both in Albuquerque.

“Combining exercise and weight loss isn’t designed so much to extend their life expectancy as it is to improve their quality of life during their remaining years and to help seniors avoid being admitted to a nursing home.”

“Although losing weight is beneficial and exercise also is good, when seniors do both, they get a greater improvement,” he added.

The study has been reported in The New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)