Re: Mayo study: Time to toss the body mass index?

[Guest guest]

There is no question that the BMI does not take into consideration the

distribution of weight in the body. A pot-bellied person with spindly

legs can have a lower BMI than a person who is plump overall. The

waist-to-height ratio is a good supplemental metric to identify

abdominal adiposity, but it is seldom used. The waist-to-hip ratio is

more commonly used, but it is worse because the circumference of the

hips is more likely to change than the height of a person.

The report below seems to indicate that the researchers were trying to

find a positive correlation between higher BMI and heart disease.

When they failed to do so, they blame the metric. (It could not

possibly be the design of their research? Of course not!).

By concluding that BMI is flawed, they try to disarm the people who

would argue on the basis of their research that fatter is better. (Is

there a hidden agenda somewhere? Of course not!)

Tony

>

> Well, here we go again...

>

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14396741/wid/11915773?GT1=8404

>

LONDON - The standard measure of obesity known as body mass index, or

BMI, is badly flawed and a more accurate gauge should be developed,

according to doctors in the United States.

Writing in Friday's Lancet medical journal, the researchers from the

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., found that patients

with a low BMI had a higher risk of death from heart disease than

those with normal BMI.

At the same time overweight patients had better survival rates and

fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI.

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

What I would like to know is ........ if waist-to-hip gives a

better indication of CVD risk (and it was that suggestion which

resulted in that ratio being added to the table in the database here)

then what are the levels of risk associated with different levels of

the ratio? ........ so that we can look at those data (different

for males and females) and draw some conclusions about where each of

us fits in.

" Grazia Franzosi from the Instituto Negri in Milan,

writing in the same issue of the Lancet, noted that a 52-country

study comparing four different tests — BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist

measure and hip measure — found that waist-to-hip was the best

predictor of heart attack risk. "

Does anyone have access to Franzosi's above article in Lancet?

And does it provide that kind of data?

And how do those data compare with other CRON-type indicators of CVD

risk? And to the extent they may differ, do we have reason to

suppose one is more meaningful than the other?

Questions, questions. We need more answers (!)

Rodney.

> >

> > Well, here we go again...

> >

> > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14396741/wid/11915773?GT1=8404

> >

> LONDON - The standard measure of obesity known as body mass index,

or

> BMI, is badly flawed and a more accurate gauge should be developed,

> according to doctors in the United States.

>

> Writing in Friday's Lancet medical journal, the researchers from the

> Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., found that

patients

> with a low BMI had a higher risk of death from heart disease than

> those with normal BMI.

>

> At the same time overweight patients had better survival rates and

> fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI.

>

[Guest guest]

http://66.218.71.231/language/translation/translatedPage.php?tt=url & text=http%3a//www.marionegri.it/-843582032.d2.asp & lp=it_en & .intl=us & fr=slv1-

credentials:

Franzosi Grace

Last writing: 10 Decembers 2004

Head Department Searches Cardiovascular

Graduated in Biological Sciences near the University of Milan, then one has specialized in Farmacologica Search near the Institute Black persons of Milan.

E' be Investigator near the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology of the Institute Black persons until 1989. From 1984 to 1993 it has been Member of the Scientific and Organizational Secretariat of the GISSI (Italian Group for the Study of the Survival in the Miocardico Infarct, fruit of the collaboration between the Black persons and the Italian Association of the Medical Cardiologists Hospitals worker), coordinating studies GISSI-1, GISSI-2 and GISSI-3. E' member of the Steering Committee of studies GISSI-Prevenzione and GISSI-HF.

how about:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524824

A Clinically Practicable Diagnostic Score for Metabolic Syndrome Improves Its Predictivity Of Diabetes Mellitus A Clinically Practicable Diagnostic Score for Metabolic Syndrome Improves Its Predictivity Of Diabetes Mellitus

http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/8399e.htm

ACE-Inhibitors Score High In Reducing Heart Attack Deaths

{after a heart attack}

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524824_print

A Clinically Practicable Diagnostic Score for Metabolic Syndrome Improves Its Predictivity Of Diabetes Mellitus

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=19530

Body mass index cannot reliably predict the outcome for patients with heart disease

"

The investigators found that patients with a low BMI had a higher risk of death than those with a normal BMI. Overweight patients had better survival and fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI. Obese people who had had bypass surgery had a higher death rate when compared with people with a normal BMI, while severely obese people had a higher risk of a heart-related death but not death from other causes.

The better outcomes for overweight people may be because they have more muscle than normal weight people, state the authors. The results therefore demonstrate the inability of BMI to discriminate between body fat and lean muscle, they conclude."

"In an accompanying Comment Grazia Franzosi (Istituto Negri, Milan, Italy) states: "BMI can definitely be left aside as a clinical and epidemiological measure of cardiovascular risk . . . Uncertainty about the best index of obesity should not translate into uncertainty about the need for a prevention policy against excess bodyweight, which must be strongly supported."

regards

[ ] Re: Mayo study: Time to toss the body mass index?

Hi folks:What I would like to know is ........ if waist-to-hip gives a better indication of CVD risk (and it was that suggestion which resulted in that ratio being added to the table in the database here) then what are the levels of risk associated with different levels of the ratio? ........ so that we can look at those data (different for males and females) and draw some conclusions about where each of us fits in." Grazia Franzosi from the Instituto Negri in Milan, writing in the same issue of the Lancet, noted that a 52-country study comparing four different tests — BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist measure and hip measure — found that waist-to-hip was the best predictor of heart attack risk." Does anyone have access to Franzosi's above article in Lancet? And does it provide that kind of data?And how do those data compare with other CRON-type indicators of CVD risk? And to the extent they may differ, do we have reason to suppose one is more meaningful than the other?Questions, questions. We need more answers (!)Rodney.> >> > Well, here we go again...> > > > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14396741/wid/11915773?GT1=8404> >> LONDON - The standard measure of obesity known as body mass index, or> BMI, is badly flawed and a more accurate gauge should be developed,> according to doctors in the United States.> > Writing in Friday's Lancet medical journal, the researchers from the> Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., found that patients> with a low BMI had a higher risk of death from heart disease than> those with normal BMI.> > At the same time overweight patients had better survival rates and> fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI.>