Posted on 08/22/2006 3:47:33 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
Being a little overweight can kill you, according to new research that leaves little room for denial that a few extra pounds is harmful. Baby boomers who were even just a tad pudgy were more likely to die prematurely than those who were at a healthy weight, U.S. researchers reported Tuesday.
While obesity has been known to contribute to early death, the link between being overweight and dying prematurely has been controversial. Some experts have argued that a few extra pounds does no harm.
However, this is one of the first major studies to account for the factors of smoking and chronic illness, which can complicate efforts to figure out how much weight itself is responsible for early death.
"The cumulative evidence is now even stronger," said Dr. Michael Thun, chief epidemiologist of the American Cancer Society who had no role in the research. "Being overweight does increase health risks. It's not simply a cosmetic or social problem."
A separate large study of Korean patients, also released Tuesday, reached the same conclusion. Both are being published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.
An estimated two-thirds of Americans adults are overweight or obese, according to federal statistics. Obesity raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some cancers. Being overweight increases blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which in turn could lead to heart disease.
The latest studies contradict controversial research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year that suggested being a little plump isn't so bad. Since then, CDC chief Dr. Julie Gerberding distanced herself from the report and acknowledged potential flaws in the study that included people with health problems who tend to weigh less.
The U.S. study, by scientists at the National Cancer Institute, involved more than half a million people, ages 50 to 71, participating in a research project by the National Institutes of Health and AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.
Researchers analyzed patients' body-mass index and mortality rate over a 10-year period from questionnaires they filled out in 1995 and 1996 detailing their weight and diet.
Under current government standards, a BMI — or weight-to-height measurement — of 25 or higher is overweight; 30 and above is obese.
Generally, you must be 30 pounds overweight be to considered obese. Using the body-mass index, a 5-foot-10 man would be considered overweight if he is between 174 to 208 pounds, and obese at 209 pounds or more.
Overall, baby boomers who were underweight or obese had an increased risk of death compared with normal-weight people. The risk was particularly high for Hispanics, Asians and American Indians than for whites and blacks. However, people who were merely overweight had no substantial increased risk.
But in a separate analysis of 186,000 healthy people — who had never smoked — overweight people were 20 to 40 percent more likely to die prematurely than normal-weight people. The risk increased two- to three-fold for obese people.
CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter declined to comment on the federal study, saying the public health agency does not comment on research done by other government branches.
In a separate study of 1.2 million Korean patients, ages 30 to 95, researchers from the Yonsei University in South Korea and Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health reported similar findings.
Among about half a million healthy non-smokers, overweight people had a 10 to 50 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease or cancer than normal-weight people.
The two studies clearly show that being overweight "is not a benign condition," said Dr. Frank Hu, an epidemiologist and obesity researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"The public health message should be loud and clear: Maintaining a healthy weight and preventing weight gain in middle age is important to maintaining longevity," said Hu, who was not connected to the research.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Tim Byers of the University of Colorado recommended taking "small steps toward weight control, such as short bursts of activity" and changes to diet.
Several years ago, Byers eliminated powdered doughnuts from his diet and lost 10 pounds. With a current BMI of just over 27, he looks for other ways to shed the weight like climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator to his fourth-floor office.
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On the Net:
New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org
Well, then, it looks like I'm a goner!
They might want to do a study to see what corellation exists between obesity and the prevelance of processed foods.
I've seen reports that people who are somewhat overweight are actually more safe than those who are too skinny or even just right on their target weight.
It's really hard to know what is the truth, with conflicting reports every few months.
Heredity and exercise are two very important aspects of good health. As long as you are not considerably over your proper weight, I think they are more important.
I would have two questions: what does it mean to die prematurely? They don't quantify the term.
Secondly, if more people are overweight today than in the past, and being overweight leads to premature death, then how come the life expectancy in the US is longer than it's ever been?
They mention the BMI, wasn't there an article this week stating that the BMI had turned out to be very faulty as a standard of health.
Being born will kill you.
The test subjects were Koreans, eh? That's great. We can always rely on the cloning breakthroughs that Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk announced....err, never mind.
The empirical evidence speaks for itself. Being fat means you just don't live as long as skinny people.
the probability of death = 100%
North Koreans, maybe?
You are one day closer to death every day after you were born. Living will kill you.
I ask you all: Do you see more elderly fat people, or more elderly smokers? In my experience, a really fat old person is a much rarer sight.
Hardly a scientific way to measure the health risks of obesity against smoking I know, but my experience is that fat will kill you quicker than nicotine. Once the smoking Nazis have smokers limited to lighting up on the top of an isolated mountain top somewhere, they'll turn their busybody eyes on Mcdonalds and what have you (they've already begun to, in fact).
I'll quote Denis Leary from Demolition Man:
"According to Cocteau's plan, I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, 'Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?' I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal?"
I know this only relates to the original topic in passing, but I suddenly felt the need to vent.
Yes, my aunt is 89.
I agree totally. It is just strange to me that people suddenly seemed to get fat about 15 yrs ago.
He lived to be 93. His weight severely limited his mobility though.
Unless I'm at, and STAY at, some mystical perfect weight for the rest of my life, I'm gonna die.
It tells me that studies are useless to me since I know that I'm going to die. Yeah, I'm about 30 pounds over where I should be, but I had a great great grandfater who lived to 115 years old (his 99 yr old son and 6 year old son both attended his funeral :) ) and everyone of his 8 children lived to be over 100.
I'll take the genetics over studies, thanks :)
Oh, by the way, he dies in 1922 breaking a horse.
Well, my experience with old people generally is that they tend to lose weight as they pass the 70 yr. mark. My husband's grandmother was sort of plumpish, but not fat after she passed the age of 60. Then as she aged and reached about 80 yrs. of age, she sort of seemed to begin to get a bit vain about being skinny. She didn't exactly diet, but she got sort of where it felt like she was a bit anorexic to me. She would put a little drib of this and that food on her plate and shove it around eating increasingly less and less. From about 80 through 92 yrs. of age, she got extremely thin, maybe it was just a natural thing for her to lose her appetite at that time - but she was awfully proud of how trim she was (and she was too trim). I've known other people, including my parents, who were not skinny until they were about 80 and then they got thin over a matter of a few years. - Another great aunt is 87. She's an artist and was quite plump in her middle years until she was about 80, then her husband passed away and her eating habits changed and she gradually got just plain skinny.
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