YOUR HEALTH

BMI - and the truth shall set you free

Maclean’s Magazine, May 5, 2014, pp. 16-17, has an interview with Dr. Carl Lavie who in his new book, The Obesity Paradox, challenges the BMI and its use to determine ‘healthy weight’.

His book is based on a meta-analysis involving 2.9 million people and 270,000 deaths.

The results: Anyone who has an overweight BMI reading of 25-30 has a 6% better chance of reaching old age than someone fit and trim, with a ‘normal’ BMI of 19 - 25.  And even those who by BMI standards are slightly obese – at BMI of 30-35 -- still have a 5% longer life expectancy than those ‘fit and healthy’ by BMI numbers.

This data confirms what I have long said on this blog: based on insurance company actuarial statistics that go back 40 years or more, people who are somewhat overweight tend to live longer.  The ideal extra weight cited in the 1970s was around 10%.

Again, Dr. Lavie confirms what insurers have long known.  When serious illness, surgery or medical treatment cause rapid weight loss, having ‘a few extra pounds’ allows a cushion so the body does not eat away at its own muscles: arm and leg and all internal organs – to stay alive. There is a tipping point at which such damage becomes terminal (i.e., you die) or results in long term muscle atrophy and other damage at the cellular level.

Dr. Lavie lists heart disease, arthritis, kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and HIV (p. 16 – middle column) as causing dangerous weight loss; and one should add the medical treatments of chemotherapy, radiation, liposuction and any medication that causes nausea and reduced appetite.

Put simply, having some extra fat on hips and bum (unlike the bad fat around the organs and belly that reduces organ function) keeps the body’s survival mode from becoming self-destructive.

Only severely obese people, with ballistic BMI numbers above  40 have significantly worse longevity rates than so-called ‘ideal’ BMI figures.

And only just under 3% of American fit this category.

So much for the obesity ‘epidemic’ that has been supposedly sweeping North America, and is being propagandized through our media, governments and schools for the last few decades.

 

Exercise ???

Dr. Lavie also recommends moderate exercise for everyone and, for the first time as I can recall, someone recommends avoiding marathon running.

He points out that blood work and heart imaging immediately after a marathon show    the same stresses as during a heart attack: namely, heart dilation and “release of substances correlated with heart attacks and heart failure.” 

Regular such racing – in practice or in competition - is, in his view, certain to cause, if not sudden heart attack, long term damage to the circulatory system.

There is no doubt in his mind that “there’s some acute damage to the heart with extreme exercise”.

 

So stick to brisk walking, swimming, bicycling, short run jogging if you must (as it caused shin and lower joint damage) and pace yourself when playing sports.

 

Put simply, while our culture has made athletes and the 6-pack lean-and-mean body or bikini-fit  the ideal – for males and females – it is not a long term ‘healthy body’ and is the enemy of longevity.

 

Try this test: Check how old your heroes were when they died – if they stayed trim                                              all their lives.

 

NOTE: For wrestler with shortened life spans see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Skudrafan1/List_of_professional_wrestlers_who_died_young                                                                                                                                                       and  http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm.

PS: The marathon is named after the run by the Greek soldier Pheidippides who rushed to Athens with the good news that the Persians had been defeated at Marathon, some 26 miles and 385 yards away  -- after which he collapsed and died.