Obese And Healthy: Not All Overweight People Need To Worry

Not all people with extra chub are doomed to a shorter lifespan, new research suggests.

A new study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, shows that obese people with only minor health problems -- like high blood pressure or diabetes -- live just as long as their slim counterparts.

"Our study challenges the idea that all obese individuals need to lose weight," study researcher Dr. Jennifer Kuk, an assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science at York University, told CNN.

Researchers looked at 6,000 Americans who are obese over a 16-year time span, and compared their risk of death with non-obese people. They found that relatively healthy people with a higher body weight in young adulthood had a similar death risk to their slimmer counterparts, though these people also reported eating healthy food and exercising regularly.

Another study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at the health of 8,000 people in the National Health and Human Nutrition Examination Surveys, showed that a ranking system called the Edmonton Obesity Staging System could be more effective at analyzing health than the BMI system commonly used. BMI, which stands for body mass index, is a ratio of weight to height, where someone with a BMI of 30 or above is considered obese.

But with the Edmonton Obesity Staging System, a person can be obese, and still be considered a "stage zero," which means the person has no health risks, The Vancouver Sun reported. The system is more accurate in predicting how likely someone is to die in a 20-year period than the BMI system is.

According to this system, a person who is in "stage one" might be on the brink of high blood pressure, while "stage two" is when a person has diabetes, sleep apnea and hypertension, according to The Vancouver Sun. "Stage three" is when a person has complications and organ damage (like heart failure), and "stage four" is when the person is suffering severe -- potentially life threatening -- disability from chronic diseases.

BMI "only measures how big the patient is, not how sick the patient is," study researcher Dr. Arya Sharma, who worked on both studies, told The Vancouver Sun.

However, CNN noted, living many years doesn't mean those years will be of high quality -- and people who are obese, even though they may be able to live as long as people of normal weight may have other social problems.

In addition, a young person who is obese may still need to lose weight to prevent further health problems down the road, CNN reported.

On the other hand, research has also shown that being thin doesn't mean you're healthy. Dr. Oz Garcia, Ph.D., recently wrote about his experiences with patients who, while slim, had conditions like Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol because they exercise frequently or eat healthily.

And a new study, published earlier this year, of 75,000 people showed that skinny people with a specific gene variant are at a higher risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, TIME reported.

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Comments

[Richard Atkinson]

01:40 AM on 08/19/2011

Hahahaha, this article and these "studies" are more hilarious than anything I could imagine. An equally ridiculous study would find that smokers without major health problems (like, say, the lung cancer and COPD associated with smoking) are as healthy as their non-smoking counterparts. Anyone who has any unhealthy behavior that, thanks to good luck, doesn't happen to cause them the normal associated problems that are caused by that behavior could be singled out and made into a completely unscientific (the very opposite of science - like the one this article describes) "study" that "shows" the behavior is not bad for some people. Uggghhhh.

[Ranveig Elvebakk]

01:22 PM on 08/17/2011

I am not sure when diabetes be came a "minor health problem." Diabetes maims before it kills, slowly over time, like radiation. In fact, the inflammatory response by the body in the two conditions is the same.
Whilst it is true genetics make some of us more resistant to the ravages of the disease, in fact, to the disease itself. the good news is that diabetes (type2) is not a disease; it is sugar poisoning of the body and reversible by stopping the poison - i.e. nutrition.
As for Dr Garcia's astute observation that "thin people get diabetes" this is a well known scientific fact described as"Metabolically Obese Normal Weight." The key to this condition is Relative Obesity. These individuals respond to nutrition as well.
Speaking of obesity itself, take a walk up a hill with an obese person. At a certain point that person can only make that trip in a wheelchair, and may have had joint replacement or other musculo-skeletal surgery. Obese children are more depressed than lethally ill children, and this does not necessarily go away in adult age. Their productivity and relative pay scale is lower, their doctor visits are higher. We might be talking quality of life, but whoever wants low quality of life - raise your hand-
For more info see www.FoodTreeMD.com

[Vegan Guy3]

11:47 PM on 08/16/2011

I think the key here is "quality of life." You could weigh 250 lbs and be 5 feet tall and live until 100, but how will you feel when your joints begin to ache and you have to get knee and hip replacement surgery. It consistently amazes me how people struggle to eat healthy and believe every commercial they watch. All the information is public and we have the Internet. If you want to know if something is healthy, just GOOGLE it!!

[lezahgg]

04:52 PM on 08/16/2011

I do know elderly obese people but not that many. By elderly I am talking late seventies and older. I also know elderly people who were once very heavy but no longer are and I have only anectodal evidence but I've noticed that people eat a lot less once they reach a certain stage in life. I agree that hypertension and diabetes are not minor problems but diabetes runs in my family and I have 90 year old aunts and uncles living with it, controlling it, and have no diabetes related complications. Someone who is classified as "obese" according to the BMI index may possibly not appear to be what we think of as obese. I personally think of obese people as people who need seat belt extenders, people who spread into other seats on planes and buses, and people whose weight keeps them from being able to perform physical exercise. These people are in danger of dying young but a size 14 woman who according to the BMI index is obese but who works out regularly and is metabolically in good shape, would not be more likely to die young than someone classifed as thin on the BMI index. I think the author might have been referring to those size 14's and not the size 4X's.

[smsiwiec]

02:02 PM on 08/16/2011

This is apologetics at its finest. And since when has high blood pressure and diabetes been 'minor' health nuances!?! #Disgusting

[Planting Health]

10:55 AM on 08/17/2011

My thoughts exactly.

[Caroleeena]

02:00 PM on 08/16/2011

How many obese old people do you know?

[mysaltydog]

01:37 PM on 08/16/2011

'MINOR problems like high blood pressure and diabetes'???? HAH!!! Who sponsored this study, mcdonalds?

[David Roman]

01:27 PM on 08/16/2011

That's really interesting. I find it hard to believe if I'm being honest. I can't remember the last time I saw an elderly obese person. By elderly I'm talking about someone in their 80's.