This is the first time I’ve heard of the “obesity paradox.” Apparently, obesity can lead you to high blood pressure, blocked heart arteries and peripheral arterial disease, but it also has a protective effect too.
Journal of the American College of Cardiology has a study this week about this paradox. They took 40 studies of 250,000 people with heart disease, and obsese patients had decreseased morbidity and mortality compared to lean patients.
They talk about this a little in the article, but from personal experience, even though it was never taught to me, I think health care professionals recognize the “obesity paradox.” One of the first things I learned working in an ICU was that “frail patients do worse.” I had originally thought a patient with a lean body mass would fair much better than a person who came in well over their IBW. That’s not the case many times. Larger people often have more metabolics reserves to fight off diseases than frail people.
The article also suggests that obese people also seek treatment sooner, and visit physicians more often.
Obese people who loose weight fair better than all others, so don’t give up on the dieting.
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