Could being Underweight be more Dangerous than being Overweight? Study

With a concentration on the obesity epidemic in the United States, a recent study focuses on the dangers of being underweight. In fact, findings show that it may be more high-risk to be too thin than too heavy. 

A recent study compared normal weight individuals to excessively thin people. They also examined the risk of death among certain individuals, including reviews of 50 prior studies.

"We have [an] obligation to ensure that we avoid creating an epidemic of underweight adults and fetuses who are otherwise at the correct weight," said study leader Dr. Joel Ray, a physician-researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

The study involved an analysis that followed people for five years or more and focused on associations between body-mass index (BMI) and fatalities related to any cause. They also studied how death rates related to weight patterns among newborns and stillborns.

Underweight patients with a BMI of 18.5 and under were found to face a 1.8 times greater risk of dying than patients with a normal BMI between 18.5 and 25.9, according to study results.

However, obese patients (those with a BMI between 30 and 34.9) faced 1.2 greater risk for dying than normal-size patients. For severely obese patients or those with a BMI of 35 or higher they faced a 1.3 greater risk.

At the end of their findings, the most important thing to remember is to keep your body in a healthy weight range.

"BMI reflects not only body fat, but also muscle mass. If we want to continue to use BMI in health care and public health initiatives, we must realize that a robust and healthy individual is someone who has a reasonable amount of body fat and also sufficient bone and muscle," Ray said, via a press release. "If our focus is more on the ills of excess body fat, then we need to replace BMI with a proper measure, like waist circumference."

What do you think?

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health.