Obesity's Link to Poor Health Queried

Obesity Health Link Queried

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People who are overweight may not be at immediate risk of dying -
unless they have diabetes, researchers reported today.

A new study suggests that obesity on its own carries no immediate
threat to life.

Researchers found that diabetes - which often follows from obesity -
carries a high risk of dying or developing failure of major organs such
as the heart or liver.

The study in the journal Critical Care concludes that having diabetes
increases the threat of dying by three times.

Researchers found that obese people, who did not have diabetes, carried
no extra risk of dying compared with slim people.

The study was performed over a three year period and the conclusion is
likely to be that "healthy" obese people have a chance to slim down
before suffering long term effects from their excess weight.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky, USA, studied details of more
than 15,000 people aged between 44 and 66, tracking their health over a
three-year period.

Researcher Katarina Slynkova reports: "These findings call for further
investigation to determine the mechanisms that underlie this complex
relationship between obesity, diabetes, and critical illness."

Meanwhile a second piece of research, reported at the weekend,
challenges the idea that regular walking may help health.

The findings, reported to the conference of the American College of
Sports Medicine, came from a limited study of the health effects of
walking. Researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada, studied
features such as lung capacity and glucose levels after a six months
training programme.

They found that counting steps, 10,000 of them, increased lung capacity
by just four per cent whilst adding some intensity to the programme
boosted it by ten per cent. Neither had any impact on glucose or blood
fat levels.