Posted on 07/17/2014 3:51:21 AM PDT by Innovative
Two new studies suggest that being overweight may actually protect against death from cardiovascular causes.
For the first study, led by Dr. Abhishek Sharma, a cardiology fellow at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 36 studies that looked at the outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent coronary revascularization procedures, including percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).
they found that patients with the lowest cardiovascular mortality risk were those who were overweight - a BMI of 25-30 kg/m2. In addition, patients who were obese (a BMI of 30-35 kg/m2) had a 27% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those with a normal BMI (20-25 kg/m2), while those who were severely obese (a BMI over 35 kg/m2) had a 22% lower risk of all-cause mortality.
The researchers found that overall, higher BMI was associated with lower mortality. Those with a higher lean body mass - the mass of the body minus fat - had a 29% lower risk of mortality. In addition, the team found that low body fat was only associated with lower mortality if no adjustment was made for lean body mass, which suggests that "body composition plays a critical role in the obesity paradox," according to Dr. Lavie.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalnewstoday.com ...
Being too overweight must be bad for you, but maybe they are being excessive, when they define what people should weigh.
I think in health, as in most things, moderation and the middle road is the safest.
It is very difficult to say what this study actually found from this excerpt.
A confounder of studies such as this is that people who are terminally ill often lose a lot of weight before they die. So, even though obesity may not be very healthy, a study could show that obese or overweight people have a better prognosis—even though if compared with healthy, non-terminal people, they may actually be pretty bad off.
people that smoke cigarettes have suppressed appetite, meth addicts and cocaine addicts don’t eat either, all can be real thin, Karen Carpenter starved herself to death, so ye, being too thin can be deadly
But fat people have multiple health issues too.
I don’t care what the study says, when you are 100 - 200 pounds overweight that can’t be healthy for you. If you are 30 pounds overweight, well that’s probably not so bad. It’s all in degrees. I don’t need scientist to tell me this, it’s common sense....
What about having triple bypass and being 10 - 12 lbs. overweight?
Hmmmmmm????????
Key to any survey is the group of people selected for the study. In this study, only people who had two types of cardiac surgery are selected. So you have folks who were well screened & approved by a physician as healthy enough for surgery. Given the general bias against overweight folks, I am assuming that this sub-set was more extensively screened.... so the starting population was biased. No wonder that the overweight folks had a better survival rate.
I’ve always believed having a little extra padding isn’t a bad thing. Helps you survive long-term sicknesses and shrapnel better than those that are rail-thin.
I am in pretty good shape for almost 70, still run, fast walk over 4 miles, lift weights - but am about 10 lbs. over my ideal weight.
No one thinks I’m obese, but I was wondering what amount of “overweight” qualified in the author’s thinking........
From the 1973 movie “Sleeper”:
Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called “wheat germ, organic honey and tiger’s milk.”
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.
Or, as Algore might say, “The science is settled.”
Can’t wait till Limbaugh finds this and tells us all it’s okay to be fat. He’ll go on to tell us how he knew this all along. And, exercising is a waste of time.
The BMI is the biggest hoax. My Ideal weight based on my body type is 200 lbs. The BMI chart says I should weigh 185. If I dropped 15 lbs, I would look like a stick insect.
In the case of women, it is better for bone health to be carrying around a little weight (more than 130 lbs. or so).
Women who are naturally slender are advised to do weight bearing exercise or wear a weight vest when they exercise to maintain bone density.
People can get too obsessed about weight, when other lifestyle factors are more important.
First of all, who determined your "ideal" weight? Second, look at it as a ratio. If you are ten pounds over but your "ideal" weight is ten pounds well then you're double. If your "ideal" weight is 200 then your only 5% over. I would suggest that being within 5-8% of what you consider your "ideal" weight would be harmless. Once you hit the 20% then you're asking for trouble. You also have to consider body type. Mesomorphs tend to carry more fat. Ectomorphs have a hard time gaining weight (like me when I was young).
only if you had no muscle.
Roger that - expecially for those with a large muscle mass. And this could be skewing these numbers. I am a gym nut who works out daily and have a large muscle mass and body fat at 10%. Most people consider me "ripped". (Not bad for a 56 year old) Yet, according to my BMI I am grossly overwieght, bordering on "obese".
Could it be that older thin people are depressed and the fat ones are happy?
I like cookies.
lol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.