Be Fat, Live Longer ....
I am sure all of you saw the results of a recent study that determined that "Overweight people live longer" ....
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=204&ObjectID=10121660
The study showed that those who are overweight live longer than those of normal weight. In addition, the study reinforces the earlier theory that obese people live shorter lives. However, a surprise result was that people with below-normal weight also had shorter lives ...
I have always had my reservations about studies of this nature .. Because you are never really making an apples-to-apples comparison. And of course there's the saying - "There are lies, damned lies and statistics !"
However, I continued reading the article and saw this ....
"The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is claimed to be the most rigorous yet with the figures corrected for age, sex, race, smoking and drinking"
Hence, the study did adjust the data for most of the key factors.
However, they did not adjust the data for what is in my opinion, the most important of them all - Income and access to healthcare !
If you look at successful people in the US, they are usually slightly overweight, not obese, not normal weight and definitely not slender (except Bill Gates !) - And of course, this is the group of people with the best access to healthcare and drugs that extend their life.
So, a better test would be compare the quality of life and lack of diseases for each of these weight groups ....
But until this follow up study comes by to burst my bubble, I am, happily slightly overweight :-)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=204&ObjectID=10121660
The study showed that those who are overweight live longer than those of normal weight. In addition, the study reinforces the earlier theory that obese people live shorter lives. However, a surprise result was that people with below-normal weight also had shorter lives ...
I have always had my reservations about studies of this nature .. Because you are never really making an apples-to-apples comparison. And of course there's the saying - "There are lies, damned lies and statistics !"
However, I continued reading the article and saw this ....
"The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is claimed to be the most rigorous yet with the figures corrected for age, sex, race, smoking and drinking"
Hence, the study did adjust the data for most of the key factors.
However, they did not adjust the data for what is in my opinion, the most important of them all - Income and access to healthcare !
If you look at successful people in the US, they are usually slightly overweight, not obese, not normal weight and definitely not slender (except Bill Gates !) - And of course, this is the group of people with the best access to healthcare and drugs that extend their life.
So, a better test would be compare the quality of life and lack of diseases for each of these weight groups ....
But until this follow up study comes by to burst my bubble, I am, happily slightly overweight :-)
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