In 2002, cardiologist Carl Lavie began to see a confusing trend. The people he was treating for heart failure were living longer if they were obese or overweight than if they were thin. How could that be right? Obesity is notoriously bad for your heart and every other part of your body. In the US, obesity is one of the biggest causes of preventable deaths after smoking. Worldwide, it has been linked to chronic diseases like hypertension, stroke, heart disease and type-2 diabetes. Even so, the world keeps getting fatter, a trend that may mean we will all be obese by mid-century, propelling those of us in the West ever closer to the first drop in our life expectancy since 1800.
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