Study rewrites the book on obesity: Being big is not a risk for certain people
New research from the University of Alberta shows some obese people are as healthy as and have no higher risk of death than their thinner counterparts.
Some may not even benefit from losing weight - including a significant number who are defined as morbidly obese - since research shows yo-yo weight loss can be harmful, says Dr. Arya Sharma, who worked with colleagues to create the Edmonton Obesity Staging System. It predicts people’s health based not only on their body mass index - the traditional measure based on height and weight - but on their mental health, other medical issues they may have such as diabetes or sleep apnea, and how their obesity affects their physical abilities.
The system grades people on a fivepoint scale, where obese people who eat regular servings of vegetables and fruit, are physically active and have no associated health problems are at Stage 0. As their health deteriorates and they begin to have underlying issues related to their weight, such as borderline hypertension or signs of pre-diabetes and heart problems, their stage increases. People with sleep apnea, diabetes and osteoarthritis, which may require a knee or hip replacement would be at Stage 2 or 3, with Stage 4 being the most severe, marked by irreversible organ damage that may require kidney dialysis or by other disabilities.
In one study published in Monday’s Canadian Medical Association Journal, Sharma looked at data from two U.S. health and nutrition surveys of 8,143 people.
The research team determined that two per cent of obese and overweight people with scores of 0 or 1 on the Edmonton obesity system died during followup, compared to 40 per cent of Stage 3 patients.
In another study published in the research journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers from York University used the Edmonton staging system to compare the risk of death over 16 years between 6,000 obese Americans and 23,000 people at normal weights.