CDC: Dangers of being overweight overstated

[classics]

CHICAGO — Being overweight is nowhere near as big a killer as the government thought, ranking No. 7 instead of No. 2 among the nation's leading preventable causes of death, according to a startling new calculation from the CDC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated today that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths.

..more..

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3142605

[meisje]

1. The Mcdonald's lobby must have got to them

[redqueen]

2. No, actually

people have been arguing for a more realistic estimate, not corporations.

[GCP]

3. Smoking'll kill you a helluva lot faster than excess weight

The statistics say it all: 640,000 deaths annually linked to smoking, 25,000 to over-weight.

http://www.no-smoking.org/nov04/11-24-04-6.html
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3142605

[KittyWampus]

4. Overweight Or Obese? Two Different Things, Aren't They?

Overweight being 10-30 pounds over average?
Obese being over 30 lbs?

[notadmblnd]

14. 30 pounds over weight is not obese

obese is 100 pounds overweight.

[happyslug]

15. SSA Use to defined Obese is being over TWICE your recommend Weight.

But more recently the other agencies have adopted a test based on your Body Mass index. Simplified it is your weight in Pounds divided by your height, The resulting number is multiplied by 703 to come up with your Body Mass index. Formula form: (Weight in Pounds/Height in Inches) x 703=BMI

Overweight is a BMI over 25
Obesity I your BMI is over 30
Obesity II Your BMI is Over 35
Extreme Obesity your BMI is over 40

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/ob_gdlns.pdf

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

19. Whoa, I'm Super-Duper Extreme Obesity XX

according to your calculation. You forgot that the height in inches is squared. ;)

[happyslug]

26. I need new glasses, I missed that square symbol

so it is Weight/height in Inches SQUARED. The result is than multiplied by 703 to get your BMI. Getting old, can't see those small 2s anymore.

[Rambis]

5. You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream

with chocolate sauce!

[pnutchuck]

6. The article makes no mention of Juvenile or Adult Onset Diabetes either.

Both of which have been linked to obesity, among other causes.

Did this study actually explore the number of overweight/obese (the article appears to blur the distinction between the two) people who have died through obesity onset diseases?

I think one of the other posters is correct in that the corporate lobbyists have gotten to them.

And before anyone starts the backlash on me, tobacco only finally got it's top ranking after years of anti smoking activists created their own lobbying machine against them. I don't foresee any anti obesity lobbying groups picking up steam on this issue any time soon.

Americans love their fast food and their double greased, sugar coated Krispy Kreams. And our stubborn "bigger is better", "more is better" attitude prevents us from following the golden rule "everything in moderation."

[NorthernSpy]

10. diabetes has been increasing among all weight groups

Other fun facts:

Mortality is lower for overweight people than it is for those of normal weight.

Current CDC figures reflect a mortality for the obese that is just a quarter of its previous figure.

Adding the mortality among the severely obese to the mortality deficit among the less-obese produces the figure cited in the article.

http://www.pharmalive.com/News/index.cfm?articleid=231061&categoryid=10


If normal weight isn't the healthiest weight, then why exactly are we calling it normal?

[pnutchuck]

12. so, what weight is normal?

the studies I was talking about were for obese people, not slightly overweight people according to normal standards. The cause for diabetes is an over abundancy of sugars in our diet that interact with our normal production of insulin. The people who are most affected by this phenomenon are those that consume a primarily starchy, sugary diet regardless of weight.

IMHO the FDA should alter the food pyramid to include more fibrous vegetables and less starchy ones while also deleting the amounts of red meat.

[amazona]

13. mortality is lower among fat people...

...because if you get cancer, then you have a better chance of surviving chemotherapy. They give people of normal weight steroids to keep them from losing too much weight when they can't eat due to the chemo. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, to judge from my friends. But if you're already slim and can't eat, you have nowhere to go except starve to death if your food won't stay down.

I would like my overweight partner to lose weight. But I don't need to hear threats of disease and death if he won't or can't. Better to be fat than develop an eating disorder, because your chance of a long life drop drastically once Ana and Mia enter your life.

I think CDC did the right thing. The original figure was a hysterical overstatement of the harm caused by obesity in my view. There's a lot more harmed caused by people refusing to eat.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Kazak]

7. Double cheeseburgers for everybody!!!

I'm sensing another planted story here... :crazy:

[NorthernSpy]

8. media hysteria hurts people

During the decades-long "Fat Kills" panic, a lot of good, decent (and, ironically, healthy) people got demonized as costly, diseased burdens on society simply because they were fat. The "experts" and news hacks who promoted this hysteria really did hurt people, and they need to start making amends.


Is crow fattening?

[zalinda]

9. I think this is more a correction article

With the current standards Arnold is considered obese, and so are many other actors you would think of even as fat. And THAT, is because of the drug companies, remember they make mucho money on their diet pills.

What I got from the article is that they made a mistake and have found that many obese people are really healthy. And diabetes is growing just as fast in "normal" size people, so it really isn't about the weight.

Yes, yes, it's not a healthy thing to be fat, but there are many, many fat people who eat healthy and exercise and are more fit than many normal weight people. My grandmother who would be considered obese, never seemed to sit down until after supper dishes were done. Her house was immaculate, as was her beautiful landscaped yard. She did it all without any help. She ended up dying in her sleep when she was in her late 80's.

zalinda

[Horse with no Name]

11. Smoke and mirrors

>>>>>snip
Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said she is not convinced the new estimate is right.

"I think it's likely there has been a weakening of the mortality effect due to improved treatments for obesity," she said. "But I think this magnitude is surprising and requires corroboration."
>>>>>>>>snip

Health insurance carriers are almost mandated to cover weight loss surgery which is verrrrrrrry expensive and has a high rate of morbidity(which leads to malpractice suits) because of the inherent health risks of obesity.
Sooo, now comes a report that says being fat is okay and not risky, the next thing will be the insurance companies being able to deny this surgery again as being elective.
This is just sick.(

[happyslug]

16. The problem is NOT weight but lack of Exercise.

Now the problems are inter-related, people are overweight because they do not exercise, people do not exercise for they are overweight.

When you control for LACK OF EXERCISE, weight drops out as a factor. IT is the LACK OF EXERCISE that is the killer, not being overweight. This can be seen in the report that people a little over weight tend to be healthier than people at their weight level, many people achieve their "Ideal Weight" by starvation and are referred to by some health experts as "Fat underweight people". Such people are UNHEALTHY for they lack muscle (Which weighs four times the same volume of fat). People who are a little over weight tend to be people not concerned with their weight AND AS SUCH TEND TO EXERCISE MORE THAN OTHER PEOPLE.

Overweight people who do exercise tend to have the same life expectancy as people of the "correct" weight. Now Exercise means more than walking to your car or in the mall. Exercise means you do breath heavier than normal (i.e. not so much like a runner breaths but you do know you are breathing heavier than just standing around). Many of these same overweight people who exercise tend to lose weight (do more to the exercise than anything else) but it is the exercise that is important.

So what would I advise an overweight person? First do NOT try to lose weight, it is self-defeating. You will NEVER lose what you want AND when you gain some or all of it backs you will just give up and gain even more weight. My Advice would be to exercise EVERYDAY for about two hours a day. Furthermore this exercise MUST be integrated into your life. You have to do it BEFORE you get home. Once home you want to shut down and relax, you do not and will not want to go back out and exercise. This problem is the number one reason people do NOT exercise, they want to compartmitize away from the rest of their life BUT THAT COMPARTMITIZATION IS WHAT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP UP.

The best solution is to make the exercise part of your life. Biking is the best way, bike to work instead of driving. Take longer but by combining your commute with your exercise you will do more exercise than if you compartimitze them into two different activities. Walking to and from work is another way to do the exercise.

Now people say they cannot commute by bike, generally it is "To dangerous". I would tend to cite the Statistics that say otherwise but when people site "Safety" for not biking on the roads, they are looking for an excuse NOT to bike as opposed to really wanting to bike. I have biked on some of the most "Dangerous" roads for biking and have NEVER BEEN HIT. Car Drivers will see you and stay away from you, they may yell at you but never hit you. People complaints of Safety are generally just an excuse not the reason for not biking.

I recommend biking for it is something you can do DAILY and integrate it into your life. By biking you will exercise daily other forms of Exercise you will have to force yourself to do, but again I point out the problem are NOT being overweight but the lack of Exercise (and that the two problems are linked, but it is the lack of Exercise that is the real killer).

[amazona]

17. sorry but no effin' way

My partner's colleague was killed in a hit and run while riding a bike. What part of "It's dangerous" do you not understand? We do not have special biking lanes in the U.S. Well, maybe in Seattle or something they do, but in real life America, no they do not. I'm sure the colleague thought he was doing a great thing for himself and keeping in shape so he could live longer. So he's killed dead at age 35 and they have a nice memorial plaque at the company in honor of all his lost potential. What a comfort. Not. People who bike in this country are at huge risk of being killed or maimed. If you enjoy riding for sport, cool, but don't kid yourself it's safe or healthy. I'd rather have my partner fat and alive.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[happyslug]

29. Statistical that is rare.

The most common type of Auto-Bike accident is when a motorist open his door in front of a Bicyclist (This can and has killed Bicyclist). The next two types of Accidents occurs when a car pulls out of a side street and hits a bicyclist as he passes the same intersection or when a car making a left turn, makes the left turn onto a side street and hit an oncoming bicyclists (It is believed Lights on Bikes would prevent most such accidents).

Surprisingly 39% of all fatal biking accidents occur at "Junctions" (Generally Driveways) compared to 31% at intersections.
http://www.street-artists.org/~dlakelan/riskfactors.htm
Driveways are deadlier than intersections and both are deadlier than just pedaling down a road.

My point is such accidents are the exception not the rule when biking, more people die driving than biking (through that is affected by the vast more number of cars on the highways than bikes on the same highways).


More information on Accidents and Biking:
http://www.bicyclinglife.com/library/Accident-Study.pdf#search='Bicyclist%20accidents'
http://www.autoaccidentlegalcenter.com/accident/bicycle/
http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/Government/bwyabc.htm

[Horse with no Name]

18. Not saying that I don't agree

But for the thousands who are obese, it would be a travesty to take away their only hope for a normal life. These are people who have probably tried every diet and fad diet in existence.
When you weigh 400 lbs, let's face it, you aren't going to jump on a 10 speed and ride around the block. That's the reality.
By coming forth and saying that weight doesn't kill--when it is a leading risk factor--is just paving the way for the insurance companies to be able to deny this surgery again by allowing the insurance companies to start calling it elective again.
Everything comes down to the dollar, and these surgeries are mega expensive and if the insurance companies are not forced to do them--then they won't.
These government figures just give them the "facts" that they need to deny them.

[amazona]

28. 400 pounds will always be accepted as morbid obesity

No one is going to snatch the bariatric surgery away from those folks if they want it after a fair examination of the risks.

However, I'm concerned when I see it being promoted in my area for people weighing 220-240 pounds. Come on. I'm not convinced that the risks are worth the potential rewards in those cases.

All surgeries and medical treatments seem to suffer from "mission creep." The surgeon has a skill, and he wants to use it, and there really aren't that many 400 or 500 people walking around to make use of the skill.

Anything CDC to keep people from going off half-cocked and starving their bodies is probably wise.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[MADem]

20. I would advise people to get a LITTLE EXERCISE

...every day, doesn't matter what or how long, and build up slowly over time. Telling people to exercise two hours a day when they have been welded to the couch most of their life won't work...they'll give up. Even if they walk for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes a day, that's something.

There's no way I would enjoy two hours of biking, even if it was going to work and back. I'd rather go out with the dog for a half hour.

[happyslug]

27. That was the point I was trying to make

You just can NOT exercise separate from the rest of your life. If you INTEGRATE the exercise with the rest of your life you can do two hours of work, but if you do not (or can not) than any exercise is better than none, but not as good as you can do if you integrate the exercise with another part of your daily life.

It is the ability to integrate exercise while commuting that I mention biking. By that integration, you make exercise part of your life style and you will do it. To do more than occasional exercise you have to integrate the exercise with the rest of your life, which can be done by biking but harder (through not impossible) with other types of exercise.

[w4rma]

21. They are just saying that because so many powerful Americans are fat.

Being overweight is very bad. It's the domino that sets off all the rest.

[FlaGranny]

22. My overweight

father died at 89 from a stroke. My overweight mother died at 94 after two bouts of different kinds of cancer in her lifetime. The second cancer did her in after 8 years, but she still had a healthy appetite until almost the end. My overweight sister is 80 and healthy and my overweight brother is 75 and healthy. I'm the baby and I'm overweight too. Should I worry? Nah.

[ninkasi]

23. I truly hope that being overweight is not so bad...

I am slender, but my cousin, who is a year younger than me...61 to my 62, is very much overweight, or obese. I know from our childhood years that the weight gains she had were in direct proportion to the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, and later, her first husband.

I am not a doctor, nor do I have any training in medicine, but I can vouch for what I saw. She gained weight, an enormous amount, and it seemed to me that she did it to insulate herself from the pain of rejection.

In other words, she could accept rejection because of obesity, but it crushed her to think that rejection was due to her value as a human. She is loving, giving, and would do anything for someone she loved; she takes pity on stray animals, and has them neutered/spayed, and tries to find them good homes. The ones she can't find homes for live with her on her five acre place.

Someone who only judges by looks might see her as an object of scorn, or ridicule. If they do it in my presence, they might regret it. I love her with all my heart. I had four brothers, and no sisters, so she is my sister in addition to being my cousin. I would fight for her if necessary. Please pardon my rambling post, but sometimes people subconsciously stay fat in order to remove themselves from normal relationships with others. They are able to accept being rejected because of their weight, and not because of their worth.

I urge any DUers who have obese friends, or family, to show them that you love them, and that your love does not depend on whether they are fat, or thin, or any other physical reason. I will take my cousin over a million people like the ones who comprise the current administration. She is beautiful because her soul is beautiful.

[Demit]

24. That's a very nice tribute to your cousin, ninkasi.

[zalinda]

30. There are a lot of reasons for being "over weight"

What the general medical profession has been saying for years is not necessarily true. Some obese people actually eat less than the average person. Tell me you haven't seen fat construction workers, they certainly don't sit on their ass all day. I just found out that the ovarian cysts that I was told was no big deal, actually is a big deal. I started taking meds for it and have lost weight, without changing my diet or exercise.

To pigeon hole every fat person into a lazy, junk food pig, is just as bad as saying any type of racial slur. You are born with the body you have, you take care of it the best way you can. Some people can afford healthy, fresh food, and some have to survive on cheap mac & cheese and white bread.

zalinda

[HuckleB]

25. Obesity, underweight both linked to excess deaths (more accurate, IMHO)

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/7615