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HEALTHY LIVING


When It’s Healthy to Be Heavy New studies show that it’s not always a bad thing to be overweight — just as long as you avoid yo-yo dieting. ::


BY LYNN ALLISON N


ew research is exploding the myth that being overweight shortens your life. In fact, some


studies show that there are times when it’s medically advantageous to have some extra girth. In the journal Neurology,


researchers report that thinner people are more likely than heavier people to have biomarkers that indicate they are candidates for


Alzheimer’s disease. And the Archives of Surgery published a study that found patients who are thin have a 40 percent higher risk of dying in the fi rst month after surgery than patients who are overweight. Dr. George Stukenborg of the


University of Virginia said the reason for higher surgical risk among thin people is not clear. He suggests that patients with a low body mass index (BMI) — a weight-to-height ratio — may have been sicker to begin with than overweight patients.


COMMON WISDOM CHALLENGED But there is a slew of other new evidence debunking the common wisdom that heavier people are ticking time bombs.


The Canadian Medical Journal published fi ndings showing that medical concerns such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease have a much greater impact on death rates than body weight. Another study published in the journalApplied Physiology, Nutrition and


Metabolism analyzed data from 30,000 individuals and found that there was “no diff erence in death risks between normal


84 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | FEBRUARY 2012


weight people and obese individuals” without other underlying health problems. In fact, the research showed that healthy people who were slightly overweight had a somewhat lower risk of dying from heart disease than people of normal weight.


FILLED OUT BUT FIT “These are the healthy obese,” Jennifer Kuk, assistant professor of kinesiology and health science at York University, who conducted the study, tells Newsmax. “They have great lifestyles. They are active and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Our study challenges the idea that all obese individuals need to lose weight.” She adds that 1 in 5 obese people may not have any health problems.


Her study


shows how important it is that


doctors not take a broad


brush and insist that all people with extra weight need to lose it to be healthy, Kuk says.


LIVING LARGER LONGER “Obesity is not a predictor of


lifespan and there is some thought that having more body fat may indeed be protective in an older population to off set the negative eff ects of aging,” she says. “That being said, this is not a prescription for people to gain weight. Certainly we know the risks of obesity and should not encourage people to become obese.” Dieting carries its own risks, say experts. “What we call yo-yo dieting can be unhealthy for the organs,” explains New York-based weight loss expert Dr. Craig Title. “Losing and gaining weight over the years puts strain on the heart.”


Dr. Arya Sharma, who is the chair for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta, adds, “What the studies clearly show is that I can’t tell you how healthy someone is if you tell me his height and weight.”


Dr. Title agrees. “The


new studies make a point I’ve been trying to


emphasize to many of my patients,” he tells Newsmax. “You


can’t and shouldn’t simply focus on a given weight number, BMI, or dress size.


“The key for


longevity is to aim for a healthier


lifestyle in terms of balanced


eating, healthier habits, and routine cardiovascular activity.”


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