don't be too skinny

[novapsyche]

A few extra pounds can add years to your life: study

Carrying a little extra weight may actually be good for you, according to a Canadian study that showed a few pounds appear to protect people from an early death.

Researchers found that while underweight and extremely obese people die earlier than people of a normal weight, people who are slightly overweight actually live longer than those of a normal weight.

[...] The study was based on examining the relationship between body mass index and death among 11,326 adults in Canada over a 12-year period using data from the National Population Health Survey.

During the study period, from 1994/1995 through 2006/2007, underweight people were 70 percent more likely than people of normal weight to die, and extremely obese people were 36 percent more likely to die.

But overweight individuals were 17 percent less likely to die. The relative risk for obese people was nearly the same as for people of normal weight.

The researchers said this was the first large Canadian study to show that people who are overweight may actually live longer than those of normal weight. An earlier study, conducted in the United States and published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed similar results.

Comments

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

But what did they die *of*? Is there a correlation between being overweight and being less active/getting in fewer car accidents, etc?

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

This is just implying that they need to re-calibrate what qualifies as normal weight.

My personal family experience notes that the women who lived into their nineties (many still alive) were what we'd call underweight today. None of the obese ones made it past 72, and most died in their 60s. The worst (a woman who could only go through doorways sideways) died of a heart condition at 52. Her husband, denied her cooking, lost over 100 lbs in the year after her death and lived another 17 years, dying at age 75 from unrelated causes (he was moonlighting as night security and was killed during a robbery).

[quility.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'm glad this is finally getting more research.

It is well documented that being too skinny can kill a person. One's body will metabolize vital bits if there is nowhere else to get calories when energy is needed. This has been the major problem for humanity for most of our existence.

Being fat on the other hand has no health problem. Yup - that's what I said. The few fat related illnesses are statistically counterbalanced by benefits of being fat.

The health problems that most ppl think are fat related are actually fitness related. The data is all conflated. If the fitness and fatness data are clarified - being fat is not a problem - as long as one is not so fat as to be able to be fit. So yes - being extremely heavy is unhealthy.

The "normal" weight ranges are all off. They were created by insurance companies.

Thanks for posting this! :)

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

np