WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Ivanhoe newswire) -- The numbers on our nation's scales are going up. A recent study puts Mississippi at the top of the list with the highest rate of adult obesity in the country. New research shows how extra weight is adding up to longer hospital stays.
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Annette Armstead knows what it takes to stay healthy. Before she started exercising, she weighed 225 pounds.
"I was tired of people telling fat jokes," Armstead told Ivanhoe. "I was in pain all the time. I was so heavy that my knees would give out on me, and I was always falling down."
Obesity is linked with increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other illnesses.
"I had problems with arthritis and different health problems, and everything they were saying [indicated] I was too heavy and I needed to lose weight," Armstead said.
A new study by sociologists at Purdue University found obesity also leads to more frequent and longer hospital stays.
"Obese people, on average, stay at least one to one and a half days longer than a normal-weight individual," Ken Ferraro, Ph.D., a sociologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., told Ivanhoe.
The main reason for extra hospitalizations is disease. Forty-six percent of obese adults in the study had high blood pressure, and obese adults who have been overweight since childhood and carried extra weight into adulthood pay the highest price for being heavy.
"The longer the person is obese, the longer their stay in the hospital," Dr. Ferraro said.
Tackling obesity at a young age is crucial to staying out of the hospital later on.
"If you can tell other people that you're on a diet, a lot of them actually might help you to stay on that diet, but if you're silent to your friends, then obviously they can't support you," Dr. Ferraro advised.
Armstead credits her weight loss to diet and exercise and has never felt better.
"I feel healthier at 55 than I did at 25," she said.
The American Sociological Association contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
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The numbers on our nation's scales are going up. A recent study puts Mississippi at the top of the list with the highest rate of adult obesity in the country.
