General fitness, health and nutrition · Public discussion

Re: Article: Study Tying Longer Life to Extra Pounds Draws Fire

DZ · 2005-05-29T20:16:12+00:00

The new federal study suggesting that people tend to live longer if they are slightly overweight was challenged yesterday by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society as well as a heart disease researcher. Complete story in Health Section, N.Y. Times, may 27, 2005 The "experts" change their minds faster than the wind changes direction. They're experts, no sneer quotes needed. The original study (http://tinyurl.com/dkl9y) was an epidemiological observation and didn't offer much opinion on what they think is going on. That being overweight is possibly healthy was offered as an incorrect interpretation by the media. It can well be true that a slightly overweight person has lower mortality. The reason is simple: most people are at their equilibrium weight. A normal, "typical" person in the US is somewhat overweight. Such person has average (not-so-high) mortality almost by definition - by virtue of being a typical, "average" person. That person is not particularly concerned about the diet. Neither is a randomly selected non-overweight person. Such individual is not representative of the segment that consciously lowered their weight through diet and exercise (such as successful dieters of alt.support.diet). Then why does that person has lower weight than the typical? Some reasons - (1) Higher load of deleterious mutations that will correlate with poor health, lower weight, increased mortality. (2) Bad habits not accounted for by the study. (3) Chronic diseases still in the prodromal stages that may last for many years before showing the actual symptoms. It is important to keep in mind that CDC study did not suggest what would happen if an underweight person purposely gained weight or what would happen if an overweight person decreased weight through diet and exercise. DZ

Started by DZ · 29 May 2005 · Last activity 3 June 2005 · 4 posts · 236 views

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Original section: General fitness, health and nutrition
Published: 29 May 2005
Last activity: 3 June 2005
Original author: DZ
Posts: 4
Discussion status: Public discussion
Total views: 236
Views / 30 days: 6

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DZ
Archived post

29 May 2005, 20:16 UTC #1

Jim Bard said:
Carol Frilegh said:
The new federal study suggesting that people tend to live longer if
they are slightly overweight was challenged yesterday by scientists
from the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer
Society as well as a heart disease researcher.
Complete story in Health Section, N.Y. Times, may 27, 2005
The "experts" change their minds faster than the wind changes direction.
They're experts, no sneer quotes needed. The original study
(http://tinyurl.com/dkl9y) was an epidemiological observation and
didn't offer much opinion on what they think is going on. That being
overweight is possibly healthy was offered as an incorrect
interpretation by the media.
It can well be true that a slightly overweight person has lower
mortality. The reason is simple: most people are at their equilibrium
weight. A normal, "typical" person in the US is somewhat
overweight. Such person has average (not-so-high) mortality almost by
definition - by virtue of being a typical, "average" person.
That person is not particularly concerned about the diet. Neither is a
randomly selected non-overweight person. Such individual is not
representative of the segment that consciously lowered their weight
through diet and exercise (such as successful dieters of
alt.support.diet). Then why does that person has lower weight than the
typical? Some reasons -
(1) Higher load of deleterious mutations that will correlate with poor
health, lower weight, increased mortality.
(2) Bad habits not accounted for by the study.
(3) Chronic diseases still in the prodromal stages that may last for
many years before showing the actual symptoms.
It is important to keep in mind that CDC study did not suggest what
would happen if an underweight person purposely gained weight or what
would happen if an overweight person decreased weight through diet and
exercise.
DZ

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Jefferson
Archived post

30 May 2005, 17:16 UTC #2

Ignoramus25383 said:
DZ said:
It is important to keep in mind that CDC study did not suggest what
would happen if an underweight person purposely gained weight or what
would happen if an overweight person decreased weight through diet and
exercise.
That's the crux of the issue. The real question, as far as personal
decision making goes, is whether lowering (or even raising) weight
would change expectation of various benefits such as looking
better, feeling better, or living longer. Unfortunately, it is
difficult to find out what happens, by conducting a randomized stydy,
because most people fail to change their weight in the long run.
So, I expect these questions to be without a definitive answer for a
while.
The percentage of body fat a person carries is significant to health at
both the upper and lower ends. This might vary
from one person to next, i.e., not an absolute. Below a certain level
of body fat, the immune system can be compromised. This may limit the
calory restriction approach to life extension in humans. Inflammation
due to excess body fat does result in many degenerative diseases.
Metabolic Syndrome and Robustness Tradeoffs -
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/53/suppl_3/S6
http://www.symbio.jst.go.jp/symbio2/papers/Diabetes2004.pdf
Frank

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rick++
Archived post

1 June 2005, 19:21 UTC #3

Dogmatists dont like science.
An actual study might disprove their cherished myths.

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Polar Light
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3 June 2005, 21:35 UTC #4

"Ignoramus25383" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
DZ said:
It is important to keep in mind that CDC study did not suggest what
would happen if an underweight person purposely gained weight or what
would happen if an overweight person decreased weight through diet and
exercise.
That's the crux of the issue. The real question, as far as personal
decision making goes, is whether lowering (or even raising) weight
would change expectation of various benefits such as looking
better, feeling better, or living longer.
The first two (looking & feeling better) are rather straightforward and most
people will tend to agree that losing weight makes them look & feel better.
In this day & age where 'thin is in', there's little incentive to gain
weight unless you're working on developing muscle mass.
As for living longer, it's difficult to establish whether someone who's not
obese would have lived longer had he/she been a different weight, there are
too many factors involved.
Quoted message said:
Unfortunately, it is difficult to find out what happens, by conducting a
randomized stydy,
because most people fail to change their weight in the long run.
So, I expect these questions to be without a definitive answer for a
while.
Life assurance tables were based on longevity and the 'ideal weights' given
by them are on the low side. I have also seen articles saying that maximum
longevity is achieved at low BMIs (18-20), not to mention the theory of
calorie restriction. It will take many years to find out whether CR actually
incrases lifespan, since most of the 'guinea pig' guys who practice it are
only in their 40s.

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