Obesity harms

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

It seems that adhering to CR versus being obese, as

a number of us were pre-CR, has many diverse benefits.

Things such as insomnia cost much in obese individuals,

yet when the health costs of obesity are calculated, what

sum of money would you put on it? Much money is spent

on sleeping pills and such, but it is hard to put a dollar

value on suffering. How many dollars is it worth to

alleviate pain?

Please, see the below web page URL and not pdf-

available paper's Medline abstract.

http://health.dailynewscentral.net/content/view/000163/41/

Study Ties Obesity to 41 Adverse Health Conditions

Contributed by Angelos | 22 November, 2004

12:58 GMT

Obesity is linked with dozens of adverse health

conditions, according to a new study of 73,000 adults

...

Am J Prev Med. 2004 Dec;27(5):385-90.

A comprehensive examination of health conditions associated with

obesity in

older adults.

RE, LL, Kristal AR, White E.

BACKGROUND: Over 70% of older adults in the United States are

overweight or obese. To examine the overall health burden of obesity

in older adults, the Vitamins and Lifestyle cohort study of western

Washington State recruited 73,003 adults aged 50 to 76 who completed

a self-administered questionnaire on current height and weight,

medical history, and risk factors. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis

of body mass index (BMI) and health conditions was performed using

data collected in 2000 to 2002. Participants were categorized as

normal weight, overweight, obese I, or obese II/III using BMI cut-

points. Health conditions included 7 serious diseases, 2 conditions

associated with cardiovascular disease risk, 23 medical conditions,

and 11 health complaints. Odds ratios (ORs) from logistic regression

models were used to examine associations of the four BMI categories

with each health condition. Analyses were gender stratified and

adjusted for age, education, race/ethnicity, and smoking status.

RESULTS: Among women, 34% were overweight, 16% in the obese I

category, and 10% in obese categories II/III. Among men, 49% were

overweight, 18% in the obese I category, and 6% in obese categories

II/III. Overall, 37 of 41 conditions examined for women and 29 of 41

conditions examined for men were associated with increased levels of

BMI (trend p <0.05 for all models). For women and men, respectively,

the highest ORs comparing obese II/III to normal weight were diabetes

(OR=12.5 and 8.3), knee replacement (OR=11.7 and 6.1), and

hypertension (OR=5.4 and 5.6). Obesity also increased the odds of

several rare diseases such as pancreatitis (OR=1.9 and 1.5) and

health complaints such as chronic fatigue (OR=3.7 and 3.5) and

insomnia (OR=3.5 and 3.1). CONCLUSIONS: A broad range of diseases and

health complaints are associated with obesity. Clinicians should be

aware of the diverse ways in which being overweight or obese may

affect the health of their patients when counseling them about weight

loss.

PMID: 15556738 [PubMed - in process]

Cheers, Alan Pater