Modestly Overweight Linked To Lower Death Risk
Featured ArticleMain Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 07 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PDT
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A new US study suggests that while the link between weight and causes of death varies considerably, being modestly overweight may actually lower death risk in a number of circumstances by providing the body with essential nutritional reserves during recovery from illness and major operations.
The study is published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and was carried out by Dr Katherine M Flegal, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Scientists from the CDC had already reported back in 2000 using data from national surveys, that risk of death from all causes was significantly lower in overweight people compared to normal weight, and significantly higher in the underweight and obese. The purpose of this new study was to get more insights into the findings, using specific mortality data with longer follow up for deaths among US adults during the year 2004.
Flegal and colleagues found that the link between weight and cause of death varied considerably. Being obese was linked significantly to increased rate of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD), being underweight was primarily linked to increased risk of death from non-cancer, non-CVD causes, and being overweight was linked to increased risk of death from diabetes and kidney disease together, but with reduced risk of death from other non-cancer, non-CVD causes.
Using records from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and cause of death records for adults aged 25 and over during 2004, the researchers estimated the cause-specific excess deaths linked with underweight (BMI lower than 18.5), overweight (BMI 25 to under 30) and obesity (BMI 30 and over).
BMI is a person's weight in kilograms divided by their height in metres squared. For example, a person who stands 5 feet 9 inches tall (1.8 m) and weighs 150 pounds (68 kg) has a BMI of 22.5.
Based on total follow-up, the results showed that, compared with normal or healthy weight (BMI 18.5 to under 25):
- Underweight was linked with increased mortality from non-cancer, non-CVD causes (23,455 excess deaths).
- Underweight was NOT linked with cancer or CVD mortality.
- Overweight was linked with significantly decreased mortality from non-cancer, non-CVD causes.
- Overweight was NOT linked with cancer or CVD mortality.
- Obesity was linked with significantly increased mortality from CVD (112,159 excess deaths).
- Obesity was NOT linked with cancer, non-cancer, or non-CVD mortality.
- Overweight and obesity combined were linked with increased mortality from diabetes and kidney disease (61,248 excess deaths).
- Overweight and obesity combined were linked with decreased mortality from other non-cancer, non-CVD causes.
- Obesity was linked to increased mortality from obesity-related cancers (13,839 excess deaths) but not other cancers.
"The BMI-mortality association varies by cause of death. These results help to clarify the associations of BMI with all-cause mortality."
Reflecting on these results they wrote that:
"Some evidence suggests that modestly higher weights may improve survival in a number of circumstances, which may partly explain our findings regarding overweight."
"Overweight is not strongly associated with increased cancer or CVD risk, but may be associated with improved survival during recovery from adverse conditions, such as infections or medical procedures, and with improved prognosis for some diseases. Such findings may be due to greater nutritional reserves or higher lean body mass associated with overweight," they added.
The findings have received a mixed response among experts. Some say this means the optimal BMI range for normal or healthy needs to be revised upwards, while others say these figures do not say anything about quality of life.
Being overweight and obese increases risk of having many diseases that reduce quality of life. The public is not just interested in how long one is likely to live, but the extent to which quality of life is affected by weight.
Also, as the authors themselves mention in their reflections, some people have higher lean body mass that puts them in the higher BMI range, so perhaps the problem is with using BMI without qualifying the type of excess weight.
"Cause-Specific Excess Deaths Associated With Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity."
Katherine M. Flegal, Barry I. Graubard, David F. Williamson, Mitchell H. Gail.
JAMA 2007;298(17):2028-2037.
Vol. 298 No. 17, November 7, 2007
Click here for Abstract.
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Copyright: Medical News Today
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I Saw This Mentioned...
posted by Alex Baran on 8 Nov 2007 at 10:24 amI saw this mentioned on http://www.projectweightloss.com and wanted to add my two cents. I personally think it's a bit dangerous to create the impression that it's ok for people to be overweight. I mean, we're being overweight right now, even though we know this is a problem; if we start thinking it's ok to be a bit overweight, we'll probably end up being really overweight. I realize it's a matter of degree, and the specialists are not advocating for people to become obese, but I think once we change our frame of mind to thinking it's ok to eat more, it will be hard to eat just *a little bit* more, and many will end up eating *a lot* more.
statistics
posted by B Kirby on 7 Oct 2010 at 5:41 pmWell, I guess that just about sums it up. We are all gonna die, skinny, fat, 100 % chance of death.
There Is A Recent New England Journal Of Medicine Study Claiming The Opposite
posted by C on 26 Feb 2011 at 4:28 amI just read online the big recent study,Body- Mass Index and Mortality Among 1.46 Million White Adults, that was written in the December 2,2010 New England Journal Of Medicine about being overweight or obese increases likelihood of dying at an early age even when people are in otherwise good health.And it says that the increased risk of death for a BMI of 25 or greater was seen in all age groups,but it was more prominent for those who were overweight or obese before age 50. This makes no sense to me,I would think that being overweight and especially obese after age 50,the older you are would be more of a risk and danger. And that it claims that they found that healthy women who had never smoked and who were overweight were 13% more likely to die during the study follow-up period than those with a BMI between 22.5 and 24.9. A lot of people are overweight before age 50,because commonly their metabolism starts to slow down after the age of 30.
Also I find it hard to believe what this study claims is true,that thin people who smoke for years don't have an increased risk of premature death like people who are not obese,just somewhat overweight and who never smoked and were in otherwise good health but who died an early death.Thin people who smoke for years have an increased risk of hear attacks,strokes,in addition to lung cancer and emphysema.When I told this to a consultant at The American Cancer Society he said and smoking increases risks for other cancers too.
My mothers's father's younger brother was thin,and a smoker for years,he died in his early-mid 50's from a heart attack on his way to work in the car in the summer of 1977.And the lead author of this recent study,Amy Berrington from The National Cancer Institute was quoted in an online article saying,that 10% of people in their study who were only overweight and not obese,died a premature death,and she said it's highly statistically significant given how many people they used in their study,but I say what about the other 90% who didn't die young? I'm going to be in this 90%.
The study posted on here study from 2007(there was the same basic study by the same lead author Katherine Flegal that was published in 2005 in The Journal Of The American Medical Association) that found that just being overweight,but not obese doesn't really increase early death and diseases.So I very concerned about this recent study.
I'm 5'4 and a half,and I wear a size 12,sometimes a 14 because my weight goes up and down but I only look somewhat overweight for my height! My face is thin,and I don't have what fat obese people have,a big fat noticeable stomach,or big fat arms,legs or backside. I have read online,that the average height of American women is 5'3 and half and the average weight is 162.
I had been thin all of my life until at the age of 34 I was overweight and had to go on a diet for the first time in my life. Before that I did no dieting at all,ate a lot of cookies,cake,etc (I always also ate fruits and vegetables too it's just that back then I could eat all of the other fattening things,do no exercise at all not even walking,and drank sugar soda,ate regular bread,ate regular mayonnaise and could put it on my sandwiches thick,and as many regular potato chips as I wanted,and was still looking thin,at a size 8.
Now,I only eat 2 low-fat low-calorie meals a day,only drink diet drinks,and eat low-fat mayonnaise,diet bread,low-fat or fat free salad dressings,and use cooking spray not oil. I rarely eat any meat either,it's just usually only one boneless skinless chicken breast. I do cheat and eat fattening things,occassionally. I don't do much exercise though,I take long walks only sometimes. I lost about 20 pounds and 2 pant sizes 8 years ago,by only eating 2 low-fat low-calorie meals a day,only drinking diet drinks and only rarely cheating after 5 months without cheating,and I took long walks 4 times a week,and I did this for over a year,but all I could get down to was a size 12, I couldn't even get to a 10 and I weighed 143-145 because it goes up and down. I have gained some of my weight back,but not as much as I had when I went on the diet for the first time.In October my weight was 160,and it went up at the end of November to 166.It's somewhat down again now because I'm trying again to get it down by not cheating and eating any delicious fattening foods which is always hard.
I see and meet so many young women in their late teens and early 20's who are obese,with real big fat stomachs,chubby faces,and big fat arms and legs,and I should have been this way when I was thin and eating almost anything I wanted with no excercise at all,and I'm really glad I'm not big and fat now! My internist and an endocrinologist said to me,that my metabolism slowed down,and that most people's does as they get older.My internist said,she can't tell me how many countless patients she's had who were thin when they were younger,and now they are overweight. I don't have high blood pressure,I'm not diabetic,and I don't smoke.
Two years ago I had an heart echocardiogram,wore a heart monitor,and had a nuclear heart stress test,where you don't exercise,because I saw a cardiologist for the first time in October 2008 because I was having Premature Ventricular Contractions,and I didn't know what they were and that this is what I was experiencing. I rarely ever get them anymore. Anyway,all of the results of these heart tests were normal.But this recent study is telling me that I still have an increased chance of premature death anyway? That is a lot of the American public who is overweight including under age 50 so what can people like me do?
My father became overweight in his 50's,but has been thin for about 12-15 years,and he's 77 and looks and acts much younger and is in pretty good health.My mother died at age 49 from a rare aggressive type of endometrial cancer,Squamus Cell at stage 4 in just a months,though she put off going to the doctor for many months even after she was feeling weak,and not well before she was diagnosed.
She didn't have any close female relatives with endometrial cancer,she didn't have a sister,but her mother lived to be 91,and her grandmother lived to be about 90,and her father's two sisters lived into their 70's and 80's,and my grandmother's youngest sister died of breast cancer in her 40's. But my grandmother's oldest sister died at 82 from bladder cancer,but her two daughters didn't get endometrial cancer either,one died at 84 and her younger sister is still living in good health at 83 and a half. My mother was thin in her 20's,but became very overweight starting in her mid 30's,and her medical records when she first went to the hospital with symptoms from her cancer,which wasn't diagnosed until about a month later,state that at 5'2 she weighed 169.She never looked big and fat though.
My father said that when you go to restaurants none of them serve low-fat and low calorie foods because they don't taste good and nobody wants them.My stepmother was cooking the same low-fat low calorie foods for their company who came for dinner as she cooks for her and my father,but my father told her to stop doing it because the company didn't like it.
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