Re: Re: Fat Patterns Linked With Metabolic Syndrome in Normal-Weight Elderly

[Guest guest]

Just taking a wild guess, since BMI is simply weight vs. height, being normal

but

with high central adiposity may suggest lower muscle mass than normal without.

JR

-----Original Message-----

From:

[mailto: ]On Behalf Of Rodney

Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 1:07 PM

Subject: [ ] Re: Fat Patterns Linked With Metabolic

Syndrome in Normal-Weight Elderly

Hi Al:

Thanks for alerting us to that report. But do we know how " normal

weight " was defined in this study? If they defined it as 'the

current population average for people of that age' then we are

talking about people with a BMI of about 29. (I recently checked

this in the NHANES III data).

If they define 'normal' weight as a healthy BMI of, for a number, 23,

then how come visceral fat is such an issue for them?

Do you see where I am coming from? They may simply be saying that

having a BMI the same as everyone else of the same age (BMI = 29) is

a serious problem. Which, if that is what they are saying, will not

be news to anyone here. Nor a health issue for anyone who has been

on a CRON diet for a year or two.

I remember people a decade or two ago who had been told their

cholesterol was 'normal' and thought that meant they were healthy!

Is this a similar (definitional) syndrome, I wonder?

[Pretty soon the school system will be defining kids who are

illiterate as 'normal', and by implication therefore, 'OK' and

nothing to be concerned about.].

Rodney.

[Guest guest]

>

>

> Hi Al:

>

> Thanks for alerting us to that report. But do we know how " normal

> weight " was defined in this study?

Hi Rod. The article specifically refers to " normal BMI " and I presume it

refers to what we understand as normal BMI (18.5 - 24 or 25), regardless of

age.

> If they define 'normal' weight as a healthy BMI of, for a number, 23,

> then how come visceral fat is such an issue for them?

That's the (surprising) point of the article: the lower the BMI, the more

pernicious the extra abdominal fat (with respect to the liklihood of having

a form of metabolic syndrome).

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems pretty straightforward to me.

Al