Wednesday 4 April 2012

Baloney Mass Index

In 'Baloney mass index' putting lives at risk the ABC is reporting that the body mass index (BMI) might be seriously underestimating how fat we are.
In Australia, about one quarter of the population is classified as obese.

But in the study, a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan was used instead of the BMI and 48 per cent of the women were actually classified as obese, while 25 per cent of the men were classified as obese.

Dr Eric Braverman, medical director of the Path Medical Clinic in New York and co-author of the new study, says the BMI should be referred to as the "baloney mass index" because it gets it wrong about half of the time.

"It just simply isn't going to be successful," he told Radio National's Breakfast program.

The US Centre for Disease Control says one in three Americans are obese, but Dr Braverman says it is much higher than that.

If BMI tests were banished and new tests implemented, he says the rate would be at 50 to 60 per cent in America alone.
The article goes on:
He also says the BMI particularly underestimates the obesity levels of older women.

"The older you get, the more fat you have inserted into your body's muscle, and what you end up with is a very skewed idea of what fitness is," he said.

"You could be 5'5", 125 pounds [57 kilograms] and look thin and fit in a dress, but you have so much fat.

"When we do a blood test with leptin we are able to adjust it, so at last obesity has a blood test that can be lowered and treated like cholesterol or the way sugar is treated in diabetes.
This is important because:
Dr Braverman is concerned with the study's findings, saying fat is behind today's cancers, heart attacks, stroke and gall bladder problems.

"Fat is what gives you a terrible future," he said.

The article concludes with a recommendation:
"A leptin blood test will tell you what's going on or best, when you go for a bone density, ask your doctor to find out how he can get his bone density machine to do a body fat [test]. Because the body fat can be done very simply."

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