Study finds standard "obesity" test badly flawed

[varkam]

Friday, August 18th, 2006
Reuters
Study finds standard "obesity" test badly flawed

LONDON (Reuters) - Body Mass Index (BMI), the standard measure of obesity, is badly flawed and a more accurate gauge should be developed, according to doctors in the United States.

Writing in Friday's Lancet medical journal, the researchers from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, found that patients with a low BMI had a higher risk of death from heart disease than those with normal BMI.

At the same time overweight patients had better survival rates and fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI.

This apparently perverse result, drawn from data from 40 studies covering 250,000 people with heart disease, did not suggest that obesity was not a health threat but rather that the 100-year-old BMI test was too blunt an instrument to be trusted.

snip

[Poppyseedman]

1. Body Mass Index (BMI),

is the biggest joke being perpetrated on the US population in the name of health since snake oil was invented.

When I was young and built like a brick house, I had almost had no body fat, I was considered overweight.

Today, I would need to lose 120 lbs to barely make it under normal BMI.

If I lost 120 lbs, I would be dead.

[salvorhardin]

2. They're still using the flawed CDC number

About 30,000 people in Britain die due to obesity every year and 300,000 in the United States where the condition is now thought to have overtaken smoking as the main cause of preventable death.

This from April of last year...

The death toll from obesity is less than a third of the government's previous estimate, researchers are reporting today, contradicting warnings that poor diet and physical inactivity are overtaking smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

A study by respected researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute found that being obese accounted for 112,000 deaths in 2000, far fewer than the estimate of 400,000 deaths in a separate CDC study published last year.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/20/MNG24CBSJD1.DTL

[varkam]

3. But...but...

300,000 just sounds so much scarier, don't you think?

[salvorhardin]

4. The thing is there's obese and then there's OBESE.

I happen to be OBESE and there are real health problems associated with extreme obesity no matter how much NAAFA wants to pretend that they (or the extremely obese) don't exist.

But for most people obesity doesn't seem to adversely affect their health or their lifespan. There's just no solid evidence to support those claims.

The problem lies in where that division between obese and OBESE lies. It seems to be different for every person. One person can be normally active and otherwise fit at 300 pounds while another person is gasping for breath and unable to climb a flight of stairs. And then there's those people who live normal, active and healthy lives at 400 pounds and don't seem to suffer any adverse effects from their weight while a lot of people would be dead from carting around that amount of excess poundage.

There are a lot of myths out there that very many people still believe in, and for some reason are still being peddled by the government health agencies. It's frustrating because these myths greatly oversimplify human health. It's also frustrating because groups like NAAFA have adopted conspiracist tones that while getting them the prize for being more shrill and hysterical than the surgeon general's office (no mean feat) unfortunately turns off a lot of people.

Never the less, if one is interested in body size and sociopolitical issues, Big Fat Blog is a must read. Just keep your skepti-sense tuned to high.
http://bigfatblog.com

[SheilaT]

5. It may be flawed for

certain categories of people, such as extremely fit athletes with a lot of muscle, but it's still pretty good for a lot of us ordinary folk.

Okay, so I don't really need the BMI thing to confirm what I already know, that I'm overweight, but it makes it less easy to pretend I am "big-boned" or some other such nonsense.

And I'd like to hear more about the study showing patients with low BMI having greater risk of death from heart disease. How low? In what time frame? What other risk factors were involved.

[Hardrada]

6. I traded not smoking

for being 20 pounds above my optimum weight. There's one risk factor accounted for. (I substituted chocolate and mango juice and cashews).

[SheilaT]

7. The dangers of smoking are so clear,

that being 20 pounds above your ideal weight is essentially nothing compared to smoking. Good for you for giving it up.

[Hardrada]

8. Thanks but now I get some digs from spouse

for having a big tum. I luckily managed not to get a big butt also!! I take her seriously though and need to exercise more.