Does Putting On A Few Pounds Help You Cheat Death?

The risk of death for people who are obese, with a BMI of 30 or greater, also declined, to the point that it was on a par with some people of so-called "normal" weight. So being fatter, at least a bit, may be healthier. So he and his colleagues sliced and diced the data to see what could account for the shift. They looked at age, sex, smoking, cancer and heart disease. The most relevant was the decline in smoking since the 1970s. But when they looked at the mortality rates in nonsmokers who had never had cancer or heart disease, it also became associated with a higher BMI over time. So what's going on? One option certainly is over these three decades we have become much better at treating the cardiovascular risk factors that come with overweight and obesity." That includes treating high cholesterol with statins; treating high blood pressure with diet, exercise and an array of medications; and making concerted efforts to help people to control blood sugar.http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/10/477376914/does-putting-on-a-few-pounds-help-you-cheat-death