Science finally has good news for people who weigh heavier than people with normal weight. Researchers have recently discovered that Type-2 diabetes patients who are overweight but not obese have longer life expectancy compared to the underweight and normal-weight people.
This affect is acknowledged as the “obesity paradox” as a higher body mass index (BMI) is a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease and Type-2 diabetes.
For almost 11 years, researchers have closely studied more than 10,500 patients who had Type-2 diabetes. It was found that both the overweight and obese patients had an increased risk of cardiovascular disease but the most interesting finding was that the overweight patients had higher rate of survival in comparison to the ones who were either underweight or of normal weight.
Researchers believe that one probable reason for the obesity paradox was perhaps the fact that Type 2 diabetes stimulated by the metabolic stress of obesity may essentially be different from that which develops in the absence of obesity. The other probable cause could be that patients with Type-2 diabetes and a low BMI may have an elevated level of alcohol and tobacco consumption, which contributes to both the development of diabetes as well as a lower BMI.
Co-author of the study, Pierluigi Costanzo stated, “It is likely those diabetic patients with normal weight have a more aggressive form of type-2 diabetes compared to those who are overweight and obese.”
Researchers are now considering that these extra pounds may perhaps protect or prevent patients from weakness and osteoporosis which can initiate the series of complications that can kill in the long run. On the contrary, a study published in the New England Journal Medicine in 2014 showed that the extra weight has no real effect in any way, though that study has employed different BMI references as comparison.
Nonetheless, health experts suggest appropriate eating precautions to diabetic patients combined with supervised exercise.
Benzamin H
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