don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

How would you respond if a new federal study came out suggesting that people who are overweight and sedentary, stressed, addicted to nicotine, and convinced that "The Rapture" is a sure thing live longer? Would you take the news seriously because it is based on a federal study? Probably not, unless you're a moron, and you can't be, else you would not be reading this essay at SeekWellness.com, a website for sensible people! Well, all the same, be advised that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) and the National Cancer Institute did conduct and report such a study recently. The result highlight was that slightly overweight people tend to live longer. (No, nothing was mentioned about the other characteristics--I added those factors to get your attention.) Furthermore, the CDCP study also found that being very thin INCREASED the risk of death. 

How could this be? More important, what should we make of such unusual findings?

Well, the normal scientific thing to do is look at the evidence and study the research protocol while searching for ways to independently reproduce the results. In the first few weeks after the CDCP report, it is clear that the association of overweight with added longevity is not being accepted. Rather, it is being challenged high and low. 
 
Accurate or not, the study chagrined, confused and discombobulated a lot of people. Alas, it did something else: It provided a good percentage of the 2/3 of Americans who are overweight with an excuse to eat more, exercise less and continue on their merry way to morbid obesity. After the study was reported in the April edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, articles appeared that gave the impression that overeating might not be so bad, after all. An example is this from the New York Times: "While the government continues to warn that excess weight and related concerns are a major threat to the 65 percent of adult Americans who are either overweight or obese, that is not the message that many people are getting from the latest report from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (See "With Potbellies Back In, Buffet Pots Are Humming," NY Times, May 3, 2005.)

They should, however, pay attention to the nature of the backlash from dietary and fitness experts across the land, including a group of scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society. These and other critics point to a mountain of research showing that the death risk from excess pounds increases continuously from normal weight to overweight to obesity. In a NY Times article, "Study Tying Longer Life to Extra Pounds Draws Fire," May 27, 2005, one critic insisted, "the death rate increases dramatically" with added weight gains. The NY Times piece cited varied studies that demonstrate the hazards of weights beyond established BMI ranges. Just a year before the new study, a different federal report concluded that obesity and surplus weight were associated with 400,000 early deaths a year and would soon outpace smoking as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The new study revised this latter number to about 26,000 deaths.
 
The major criticism of the CDCP findings seems to be that mortality linked to overweight and obesity was underestimated because the study did not exclude smokers and other overweight folks who were already ill. However, the federal folks in turn argue with equal conviction that other major studies were flawed in specific ways, and design problems skewed THEIR results. The authors of the CDCP study claim that they looked at the data in different ways, and the results never varied. In addition, the federal investigators employed actual weights and heights of subjects rather than relying on self-reported data, the standard approach in existing studies. 
 
So, what to believe? As with all such findings at odds with existing assumptions and beliefs, only one thing can be done. More studies. Meanwhile, neither the CDCP investigators nor I would want you to put on weight as a strategy for living longer or better. Instead, recognize that a greater threat to long life AND quality life is too little exercise, not too much food or even weight. So, live wisely and always look on the bright side of life, no matter what the latest federal study suggests about weight and longevity. 
 
Be well.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of appearance and aging. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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