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Surprise: Death risk less for fat people
STUDY REVERSES FEDERAL STANCE ON IMPACT OF OVERWEIGHT
By Gina Kolata
New York Times
People who are overweight have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today in an unexpected outcome to the newest and most comprehensive study of the impact of obesity.
The researchers, statisticians and epidemiologists from the federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute, also found that the increased risk of death from obesity was not apparent until people became extremely heavy, a group that includes only 8 percent of Americans.
Being very thin -- even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to be caused by disease -- caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The new study, considered by many to be the most rigorous yet, took into account such factors as smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a method that has been used to predict cancer risk.
It used the federal government's definitions of weight categories, which measure fatness according to body mass , an estimate based on weight and height. For example, people 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing less than 122 pounds are considered underweight. If they weighed from 122 to 164 pounds their weight would be normal. They would be overweight if their weight was 165 to 196. If they weighed 197 or more, they would be obese.
In the study, nearly all the death risk from obesity occurred in the heaviest of the obese, such as a 5-foot-8-inch person weighing more than 230 pounds.
``I love it,'' said Steven Blair, who is president and chief executive of the Cooper Institute, a non-profit research and educational organization in Dallas that focuses on preventive medicine. ``There are people who have made up their minds that obesity and overweight are the biggest public health problem that we have to face,'' he said. ``These numbers show that maybe it's not that big.''
But Joann Manson, the chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, pointed to her own study of nurses that found mortality risks in being overweight and even greater risks in being obese. Her study involved mostly white professional women and used different statistical methods.
``We can't afford to be complacent about the epidemic of obesity,'' she said.
The study only addressed risk of death and not disability or disease. As weight increases from overweight to obese to super obese, people are more and more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
The study did not explain why overweight appears best as far as mortality is concerned, but study co-author David Williamson of the CDC said it may be that most people die when they are older than 70, and having a bit of extra fat in old age appears to be protective, giving rise to more muscle and more bone.
``It's called the obesity paradox,'' he said, adding that while the paradox is real, the reasons are speculative.
The study comes 13 months after different researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a paper in the same journal saying obesity and overweight were causing an extra 400,000 deaths a year and were poised to overtake smoking as the nation's leading preventable cause of premature death.
That conclusion caused an uproar as scientists, particularly those who study the consequences of smoking, questioned its methods. In January, the agency's scientists corrected computational errors and published a revised estimate of about 365,000 deaths.
Now, according to the current study, obesity is causing about 111,000 extra deaths, but overweight is preventing about 86,000 deaths, leaving a total toll of about 25,000 deaths from obesity and overweight. Underweight is causing about 34,000 deaths a year.
STUDY REVERSES FEDERAL STANCE ON IMPACT OF OVERWEIGHT
By Gina Kolata
New York Times
People who are overweight have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today in an unexpected outcome to the newest and most comprehensive study of the impact of obesity.
The researchers, statisticians and epidemiologists from the federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute, also found that the increased risk of death from obesity was not apparent until people became extremely heavy, a group that includes only 8 percent of Americans.
Being very thin -- even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to be caused by disease -- caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The new study, considered by many to be the most rigorous yet, took into account such factors as smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a method that has been used to predict cancer risk.
It used the federal government's definitions of weight categories, which measure fatness according to body mass , an estimate based on weight and height. For example, people 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing less than 122 pounds are considered underweight. If they weighed from 122 to 164 pounds their weight would be normal. They would be overweight if their weight was 165 to 196. If they weighed 197 or more, they would be obese.
In the study, nearly all the death risk from obesity occurred in the heaviest of the obese, such as a 5-foot-8-inch person weighing more than 230 pounds.
``I love it,'' said Steven Blair, who is president and chief executive of the Cooper Institute, a non-profit research and educational organization in Dallas that focuses on preventive medicine. ``There are people who have made up their minds that obesity and overweight are the biggest public health problem that we have to face,'' he said. ``These numbers show that maybe it's not that big.''
But Joann Manson, the chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, pointed to her own study of nurses that found mortality risks in being overweight and even greater risks in being obese. Her study involved mostly white professional women and used different statistical methods.
``We can't afford to be complacent about the epidemic of obesity,'' she said.
The study only addressed risk of death and not disability or disease. As weight increases from overweight to obese to super obese, people are more and more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
The study did not explain why overweight appears best as far as mortality is concerned, but study co-author David Williamson of the CDC said it may be that most people die when they are older than 70, and having a bit of extra fat in old age appears to be protective, giving rise to more muscle and more bone.
``It's called the obesity paradox,'' he said, adding that while the paradox is real, the reasons are speculative.
The study comes 13 months after different researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a paper in the same journal saying obesity and overweight were causing an extra 400,000 deaths a year and were poised to overtake smoking as the nation's leading preventable cause of premature death.
That conclusion caused an uproar as scientists, particularly those who study the consequences of smoking, questioned its methods. In January, the agency's scientists corrected computational errors and published a revised estimate of about 365,000 deaths.
Now, according to the current study, obesity is causing about 111,000 extra deaths, but overweight is preventing about 86,000 deaths, leaving a total toll of about 25,000 deaths from obesity and overweight. Underweight is causing about 34,000 deaths a year.
to fat americans.
It's the perfect case of what Eddie Izzard would call passive research, where you let the study come to you. Then add the 'I choose what I believe in' strategy combined with 'it doesn't matter if it's only one study out of 100, and extremely trivial. Now I feel good about myself and that's enough, they lied to me when I KNEW I WAS SUPERIOR TO BEGIN WTIH!'.. It's ok! Don't worry.. no problem. Just a bit amusing 
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