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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Being a Little Overweight May Be Best for Battling
Disease, Infection, Staying Alive
The modestly overweight have a lower risk of death
than obese and underweight
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Watch Video |
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 Obesity,
But Not Overweight, Linked To Cancer and Cardiovascular Deaths
Click Here |
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Nov. 6,2007 Researchers classifying people into
three classes obese, overweight and underweight conclude that excess
overall mortality is associated with underweight and obesity but not
with overweight. Overweight is not strongly associated with increased
cancer or cardiovascular risk but appears to provide improved survival
during recovery from infections, medical procedures, and some diseases.
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Health & Medicine |
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This may be due to greater nutritional reserves or
higher lean body mass associated with overweight, according to a study
in the November 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
The association between weight and causes of death
can vary considerably -
● obesity associated with a significantly increased mortality from
cardiovascular disease (CVD),
● underweight associated with increased mortality from primarily
non-cancer, non-CVD causes, and
● overweight associated with increased mortality from diabetes and
kidney disease combined, but with reduced mortality from other
non-cancer non-CVD causes of death, the researchers report.
In a previous study, we estimated excess all-cause
mortality associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity in the
United States in 2000 using data from national surveys, the authors
write.
We found significantly increased all-cause
mortality in the underweight and obese categories and significantly
decreased all-cause mortality in the overweight category compared with
normal weight.
To gain further insight into these findings, we
now extend that work, using additional mortality data with longer
follow-up, to examine the association of cause-specific mortality with
different weight categories among U.S. adults in 2004.
Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues
estimated the cause-specific excess deaths associated with
● underweight (body mass index [BMI] less than 18.5),
● overweight (BMI 25 to less than 30), and
● obesity (BMI 30 or greater).
BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by
height in meters squared. The researchers analyzed data from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) I, 1971-1975;
II, 1976-1980; and III, 1988-1994, which was combined with data on BMI
and other covariates from NHANES 1999-2002 with underlying cause of
death information for 2.3 million adults 25 years and older from 2004
vital statistics data for the United States.
Based on total follow-up these were the findings
for the three groups.
● Underweight was associated with a significantly increased mortality
from noncancer, non-CVD causes (23,455 excess deaths) but not associated
with cancer or CVD mortality.
● Overweight was associated with a significantly
decreased mortality from noncancer, non-CVD causes but was not
associated with cancer or CVD mortality.
● Obesity was associated with a significantly
increased mortality from CVD (112,159 excess deaths) but not associated
with cancer mortality or with noncancer, non-CVD mortality.
Further analyses found:
● Overweight and obesity combined were associated with increased
mortality from diabetes and kidney disease (61,248 excess deaths) and
decreased mortality from other noncancer, non-CVD causes.
● Obesity was associated with an increased
mortality from cancers considered obesity-related (13,839 excess deaths)
but not associated with mortality from other cancers. Comparisons across
surveys suggested a possible decrease in the association of obesity with
CVD mortality over time.
Some evidence suggests that modestly higher
weights may improve survival in a number of circumstances, which may
partly explain our findings regarding overweight, the authors write.
Overweight is not strongly associated with
increased cancer or CVD risk, but may be associated with improved
survival during recovery from adverse conditions, such as infections or
medical procedures, and with improved prognosis for some diseases. Such
findings may be due to greater nutritional reserves or higher lean body
mass associated with overweight.
...our data indicate that the association of BMI
with mortality varies considerably by cause of death. These results help
to clarify our earlier findings of excess overall mortality associated
with underweight and obesity but not with overweight.
Watch Video: Obesity, But Not Overweight, Linked To
Cancer and Cardiovascular Deaths
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