Sometime in the past couple of years or so, my Body Mass Index (BMI) edged into the obese range, prompting me to get in the pool and back in the gym over the summer. I had grand plans to somehow get myself back to my svelte college BMI that was in the normal range, but alas, I think age, the accompanying decreases in metabolism getting older brings, and my lack of inhibition when it comes to fatty food, is preventing me from getting there. A new study that will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, may make me feel a bit more satisfied about my overweight frame. From The New York Times:
Linking, for the first time, causes of death to specific weights, they report that overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease. And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease.
As a consequence, the group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute reports, there were more than 100,000 fewer deaths among the overweight in 2004, the most recent year for which data were available, than would have expected if those people had been of normal weight.
Now there's probably more to this study than meets the eye, and I don't think the purpose of this report is to give us all carte blanche to get crazy with cupcakes. Still, I kind of like having a reason to not feel so guilty about that extra slice of pizza I eat every so often.
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