Smoking coupled with obesity raises death risk

"Everyone knows smoking and being obese is not healthy for you, but now a new study shows the odds of dying early are highest among obese smokers. 'We know that obesity and smoking by themselves are important health risk factors,' said lead researcher Annemarie Koster, an epidemiologist at the U.S. National Institute on Aging. 'We found that smoking and obesity are independent predictors of mortality, but smoking and being obese especially increases the mortality risk.' Smoking and obesity both carry a significant mortality risk, but particularly smoking, Koster said. 'It seems that smoking cessation was associated with significantly lower mortality risk in every weight group,' she said. 'Quitting smoking will definitely improve your mortality risk, no matter in what weight group you are.' The report was published in the November issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"