Fat Overweight People Have Lower Death Rate
November 9, 2007Love Your Health Money Family & Relationship
There was a research done by a group of federal researchers to find out the relationship between weight and the death rate. They found out that overweight people have a lower death rate than people who are normal weight, underweight or obese.
After doing further research and investigation, researchers learned which diseases are more likely to lead to death in each weight group. Linking causes of death to specific weights, it turns out overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes mental diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and some infectious and lung disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute reports that there were more than 100,000 fewer deaths among the overweight in 2004 than people would have expected if those people had been of normal weight. The researchers also confirmed that obese people and people whose weights are below normal have higher death rates than people of normal weight. But, when they asked why, they found that the reasons were different for the different weight categories. Therefore, the experts are recommending government to reconsider what the ideal weights are; meaning to increase the ideal weights.
Health experts generally divide weight into four categories — normal, underweight, overweight and obese — based on the body mass index, which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. The researchers caution that a study like theirs cannot speak to cause and effect. They do not yet know, precisely, what it is about being underweight, for instance, that increases the death rate from everything except heart disease and cancer. Researchers tried to rule out those who were thin, because they might have been already sick. They also ruled out smokers, and the results did not change.
Note: Health extends far beyond death rate and being overweight is not desirable.
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