"Healthy obesity" is a myth, says report

Scientists weigh the results of eight studies, find excess pounds raise death risk over time

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, december 2, 2013 HealthDay News)-the idea that some people may be overweight or obese and still be healthy is a myth, according to a new Canadian study.

Even without high blood pressure, diabetes or other metabolic problems overweight and obese people have higher rates of death, heart attacks and strokes after 10 years compared with their thinner counterparts, the researchers found.

"These data suggest that increased body weight is not a benign condition, even in the absence of metabolic abnormalities, and argue against the concept of healthy obesity or benign obesity," says researcher Dr. Ravi Retnakaran, Associate Professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

Conditions healthy obesity and benign obesity has been used to describe people who are obese but did not have the aberrations that usually accompanies obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol, Retnakaran explained.

"We found that metabolically healthy obese individuals are at increased risk of death and cardiovascular events in the long term compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals," he added.

It is possible that obese people are metabolically healthy have shown low levels of certain risk factors that worsen over time, researchers suggest in the report, published online dec 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center, welcomed the report. "Attention to the recent" obesity paradox "in the professional literature and popular culture alike, this is a very timely and important papers," said Katz. (Obesity paradox is that some people benefit from chronic obesity.)

Some obese people seem healthy because not all weight gain is harmful, Katz said. "It is partly due to genes, in part on the source of calories, partly at the task level, partly on hormone levels. Weight gain in the lower limbs among younger women tend to be metabolically harmless. weight gain as fat in the liver may be harmful at very low levels, "said Katz.

A number of things, however, work to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and death over time, "he added.

"Above all the fat in the liver interfere with its function and insulin sensitivity," Katz said. This will start a domino effect, he explained. "Insensitivity to insulin causes the pancreas to compensate by increasing insulin production. Higher insulin levels affect other hormones in a cascade that causes inflammation. Fight-or-flight hormones are affected, raising blood pressure. Liver dysfunction also reduces blood cholesterol levels, "said Katz.

In General, they added things that people do to make themselves fitter and healthier tends to make them less fat, he said.

"Lifestyle practices promote weight control in the long run, generally contributes to better health as well. I am in favour of a focus on finding health over focus on losing weight, "noted Katz.