Smoking, body-mass index, and exercise patterns in midlife and late adulthood are predictors of subsequent disability. Not only do persons with better health habits survive longer, but in such persons, disability is postponed and compressed into fewer years at the end of life.

No abstract

Nutrient intakes from 7-d diet records were compared with hydrostatically determined body composition in 155 sedentary obese men aged 30-59 y. Percent body fats ranged from 18.6 to 40.3. The men ate (mean +/- SD) 2570 +/- 514 kcal/d: 15.6 +/- 2.6% from protein, 40.7 +/- 5.7% from fat, 37.5 +/- 6.9% from carbohydrate, and 6.2 +/- 6.0% from alcohol. Percent body fat correlated positively (p less than 0.05) with g/1000 kcal intake of total, saturated, and monounsaturated fatty acids and negatively with carbohydrates and plant protein. Total calories, number of meals, and distribution of calories were unrelated to percent body fat, total weight, or fat-free mass. The higher proportion of fat and carbohydrate in the diet may contribute to obesity in men. The modest caloric intake of these men and the lack of correlation between percent body fat and total calories suggest that calorie differences are not the major cause of the variations in obesity in these men.

No abstract

Anatomical adipose tissue distribution patterns are reported to relate to plasma lipids and risk of cardiovascular disease. Waist to hip girth ratios (WHR) and subscapular 10 triceps skinfold thickness ratios (STR) were compared with percent body fat and body mass index values as correlates of plasma lipids and lipoprotein cholesterol and serum lipoprotein subfraction mass by analytic ultracentrifugation in 81 sedentary middle-aged men in a typical range of adiposity. WHR was significantly and positively correlated with plasma concentrations of triglycerides, cholesterol, and low and very low density lipoprotein (LDL and VLDL) cholesterol and inversely correlated with high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. STR followed these trends, though less strongly, in relation to plasma triglycerides, VLDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol. Pronounced differences were found between regional adiposity patterns in their relationships to lipoprotein subfractions, as determined by analytic ultracentrifugation. WHR was negatively correlated with HDL2 (flotation rate F(1.2) 3.5-9), positively with small LDL (S.f 0-7), intermediate density lipoprotein (S.f 12-20), and VLDL (S.f 20-400), while STR correlated with larger LDL (S.f 7-12) and larger VLDL (S.f 60-400). Overall adiposity was not significantly associated with plasma lipoprotein levels after adjusting for regional adiposity patterns. Plasma sex hormone-binding globulin and percent free testosterone were associated with regional adiposity, but did not account for the correlations between WHR and lipoproteins. WHR and STR are measures of fat distribution that correlate with plasma lipoprotein profiles consistent with cardiovascular disease risk and have different relationships to lipoprotein mass subfractions.