Are obese people necessarily unhealthy?

The obesity rate has gradually stabilized. In the traditional impression, obesity is associated with unhealthy. The United States once thought that obesity was one of the main causes of preventable death, second only to smoking. People all over the world also generally associate obesity with chronic diseases such as hypertension, stroke, heart disease and type II diabetes. Because of various reasons such as diet, the number of obese patients is increasing year by year, and the United States even boldly predicts that by 2050, all Americans will become obese or overweight. So when scientists noticed the signs that the obesity rate stopped rising, they were surprised, so they did one study after another and finally found that the obesity rate did not keep rising, but stabilized. However, no one was convinced at that time, and scientists continued to study. They announced that the obesity rate in the United States has not increased significantly since at least 2008. The obesity rate of adults and minors has been stable at around 34%. In addition, this "obesity plateau" is not limited to the United States. Other developed countries have similar development trends and even the description of the decline of obesity rate in recent 10 to 15 years. Obesity is healthier than thinness? With people paying more and more attention to their health, people are also paying more and more attention to the harm caused by obesity. Among them, people think that obesity affects heart health. However, some phenomena show that the mortality rate of patients with thin heart is twice that of patients with overweight or even obesity. This aroused the interest of scientists. In a large-scale study involving 64,000 Swedish heart patients, it was shown that obese or overweight respondents had a lower risk of death than normal-weight people. The risk of death of underweight respondents is even as high as three times. Heart disease is by no means the only disease that may benefit from fat. It is also surprising that obesity is obviously related to the fate of patients with type II diabetes. In this study, 2625 patients who were recently diagnosed with type II diabetes participated in the study. This study found that during the study, the mortality rate of normal weight patients was twice as high as that of overweight or even obese patients. The same is true of rheumatoid arthritis and kidney disease. Time and time again, the same pattern appears in the study: in the long run, these patients diagnosed with different fatal diseases will live better than those with normal weight if they are overweight or slightly obese. Even after the researchers ruled out the influence of weight loss caused by existing diseases (such as cancer), this conclusion still holds. It needs to be clarified that being overweight is not the goal of good health. A sedentary lifestyle, a poor diet and a body mass index over 40 will not make you healthy. However, when you are overweight, staying healthy is not the same as losing weight. Obese people are more likely to survive the disease. This phenomenon has been observed so many times that it has gained a name "Obesity Paradox". Fat meat is more useful than we thought. A popular preliminary theory holds that human fat contains anti-inflammatory components and extra energy, which can enhance the body's resistance and resist the destruction of diseases. More specific experiments attribute this effect to leptin stored in fat. These extra fats may have a protective effect on heart patients, and people with more fat can make use of these "extra reserves" in their bodies. But obesity just makes patients healthier? What about ordinary people? Therefore, when comprehensively analyzing the relationship between body mass index and health of 2.88 million people, the research proves that the relationship between health and weight is U-shaped and nonlinear. In other words, in any case, people who are overweight or even slightly obese have a lower risk of death than those who are underweight or severely obese. However, due to different measurement standards, there is no clear linear relationship between body mass index (BMI) and health. Therefore, the measurement standard of body mass index is still not perfect. The incomplete body mass index index system has been misused since its establishment, and its defects are numerous. First of all, it can't explain the position of fat in the body, which is not conducive to predicting whether a person will suffer from cardiovascular disease or cancer. Therefore, it is not reliable to use body mass index as the index of real fat mass. Secondly, it can't tell whether it is muscle or fat. After all, few people have an obese body mass index and look like Schwarzenegger. However, ignoring this criticism masks a more subtle fact: in most cases, a person who should be classified as overweight or "first-class" obese according to the body mass index may be metabolically healthier than a person of normal weight simply because of his better physique. However, according to the standard classification of body mass index, this person is no different from people with poor physique and severe obesity. When overweight people gain more muscles, their health will be improved, but their body mass index tends to get worse, and sometimes even make them squeeze into the ranks of "obesity". In addition, the classification of obesity is too broad, including all people with a body mass index greater than 30. This includes a weight range that can theoretically be extended to infinity. Scientists believe that this is why many studies are so confusing. In a series of findings of 20 13, it was observed that there was a significant difference between people with first-degree obesity and those with body mass index close to 40. Secondary and tertiary obesity is closely related to high mortality, while primary obesity is not. However, most studies that rely on the obesity index rarely make this distinction. Health care providers also tend to ignore this. This is why the body mass index can't distinguish healthy fat people from unhealthy thin people. These two types of people frequently appear in recent studies. For example, 20 13, a study involving 43,000 people explored the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Nearly half of obese people have no metabolic problems, and no one has hypertension, high cholesterol, insulin resistance and other symptoms usually associated with obesity. The mortality rate of cardiovascular disease or cancer in this kind of "healthy obese" population is no different from that of people with the same healthy metabolism and average weight. Therefore, scientists believe that weight should not be the focus of attention. For those whose body mass index is between 18.5 and 35, he said that the focus should be on health rather than weight loss. What is the measure of "health"? Since the body mass index is not accurate, why should we continue to use this standard? In fact, at least five alternative indicators have been proposed, from the calculation of more complicated mathematical equations to the waist circumference/height ratio system that can more truly reflect the risk of illness. However, at this point, no public health institution has any plans to switch to another set of measurement standards. Part of the reason for this problem is that only using the body mass index can provide an official measure in a simple evaluation. In order to reduce injuries in a short time, many people suggest that doctors should be more cautious when using the body mass index. For example, for young people, the traditional method of measuring body mass index seems to be useful. However, the standard of body mass index is biased when it is specifically aimed at the elderly. More and more studies show that at this age, obesity is related to a lower risk of death, not a higher risk. Similarly, the body mass index does not apply to all races, and it should be different for different sexes. In addition, in some cases, patients with special diseases should even consider being overweight, regardless of the recommended weight range of body mass index.