Two women in my life I grew up around both had bipolar disorder and both lived into their 80's, so . . . I'm not too worried about it.

I found this article about this which, besides suicide, noted comorbity of COPD, diabetes, and heart disease due to often poor health care, smoking, other substance misuse, and obesity in patients with bipolar disorder.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/807988

I don't smoke, rarely drink, don't use illicit substances. I'm a bit overweight, but not on the obese side (and that has nothing to do with bipolar disorder for me -- I just enjoy eating and hate exercising -- both factors I could completely change if so inclined.)

Another article mentioned the discrepancy gets smaller the older the bipolar patient which confirms what I saw in my women friends growing up:

Lower Life Expectancy in Patients with Bipolar Disorder