Weight history over time shows higher risk of death for overweight, obese people
The study, in the Annals of Internal Medicine , further undercuts the so-called 'obesity paradox' raised by prior studies, which posits that being overweight is protective against mortality from heart and other diseases. The new study examined risks for all-cause and cause-specific death associated with being overweight or obese among more than 225,000 participants in three large prospective studies. It gauged the maximum BMI (body mass index) of participants across 16 years of weight history, and examined deaths that occurred within an average of 12 years of follow-up. The analysis found that people with a maximum BMI in the overweight or obese categories were at elevated risk for all-cause death, as well as death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease. The highest risk for death occurred among participants who had significant drops in weight, which the authors said most likely reflected unintentional weight loss caused by illness. Several prior st...