Extra weight not always problematic

Gone are the days when an overweight person could only think of problems coming his way. A new study has shown that in fact being merely overweight - having a BMI between 25 and 30, may actually protect people against dying prematurely from a range of diseases.

BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared.

Until recently it had been assumed that overweight people have a higher risk of heart attacks and cancers but a study conducted by U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia has shown that being a five to 10 kilos overweight may not be as harmful and may actually give some protection in case of certain cancers and heart disease.

"Excess weight does not uniformly increase the risk of mortality from any and every cause. The take-home message is that the relationship between fat and mortality is more complicated than we tend to think," said Katherine Flegal, study's author and a senior scientist at the CDC.

The study analyzed new mortality figures from 1971 and 2004 for 2.4 million US adults and found that being overweight did increase the risk of kidney disease and diabetes but did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer.

Being overweight may also be protective from diseases like tuberculosis and Alzheimer's, which are other common causes of death and have not been associated excess weight till now.

These findings are valid only in the cases where the people are moderately obese and the category of people more than 15 kilos above their ideal weight, have a higher risk of death from a variety of illnesses, including some cancers and heart disease. The World Health Organization says about 400 million individuals around the globe are grossly overweight.

Dr. Flegal says their overall chance of dying of cancer at first does not appear to be increased.

"But then we divided cancer into sub-groups, including a group of cancers that are considered to be obesity-related, like colon cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, and some others," Dr. Flegal said. "And in that case we actually found that about 11 percent of deaths from those cancers were associated with obesity."

Professor Ian Caterson, from the NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity, Australia said a more cautious approach was necessary.

"It is true that Caucasians at the lower end of the overweight range are not in great danger of health problems but 75 per cent of people with a BMI over 27 have one disease, like hypertension or diabetes,” he said.

Dr. Flegal still thinks people should not take these findings as a free ticket and not take their health seriously. As far as possible people should maintain healthy lifestyle and avoid gaining extra pounds.

"I would like to emphasize that our study does not change the basic public health recommendations," Dr. Flegal said. "You should eat right, get some activity, and do not smoke. Nothing about our study changes those recommendations."