OBESITY AND SURVIVAL
Until recently, most doctors agreed that thin people are more likely to live longer than those who are even slightly overweight.
In the past few years, however, many experts have suggested that it is actually healthier for middle-aged people to put on some weight and not to stay as slim as they were during their most active early adult years. It was even suggested that new “ideal weight” tables be developed allowing people to put on about 10 pounds in each decade because certain statistics show that thin people have a higher death rate than those of average or slightly heavier weight.
Because of these conflicting viewpoints, the Journal of the American Medical Association (267:353) reports, a group of researchers at Harvard University Medical School has carefully analyzed all studies of this topic.
Their conclusion is that the thinner you are (if you are not thin because of an illness or smoking), the longer you are likely to live. They discovered, furthermore, that the reason why some people had begun to believe otherwise was that many recent weight/survival studies were carelessly conducted and statistically flawed.
It was found, for instance, that no attempt had been made to eliminate smokers and sick people from those studies, and that these were the people who tended to weigh less and to die earlier than the others. When these people’s data were removed from the statistics, it became obvious that the lowest death rates occur in people who keep their weight to at least 10 pounds under the average for their age and height. The idea that it is beneficial to increase one’s weight in middle age cannot be supported.
A significant increase in the coronary heart disease death rate is seen when people are 30 percent over their ideal weight, Modern Medicine (53#6:49) reports. Such “morbid obesity” increases the mortality from heart disease by 12 times in people aged 25-35, six times in those aged 35-45, and three times in those who are over 45.
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