Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says

by LaVonne on 20/04/05 at 1:26 am

By GINA KOLATA

Published: April 20, 2005

People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.

The researchers – statisticians and epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – also found that increased risk of death from obesity was seen for the most part in the extremely obese, a group constituting only 8 percent of Americans.

And being very thin, even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to stem from disease, caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers said.

The new study, considered by many independent scientists to be the most rigorous yet on the effects of weight, controlled for factors like smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a well-known method that has been used to predict cancer risk.

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