Underweight, obesity linked to more death

HYATTSVILLE, Md., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Underweight is associated with a significantly increased mortality from non-cancer, non-cardiovascular diseases, U.S. researchers say.

Katherine M. Flegal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues estimated the excess deaths associated with underweight, overweight and obesity. Being overweight is associated with a significantly decreased mortality from non-cancer, non-cardiovascular disease causes but is not associated with cancer or cardiovascular mortality, the researchers found.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also said obesity is associated with a significantly increased mortality from cardiovascular disease, but not associated with cancer mortality or with non-cancer, non-cardiovascular mortality.

"Some evidence suggests that modestly higher weights may improve survival in a number of circumstances, which may partly explain our findings regarding overweight," the authors said in a statement. "Overweight is not strongly associated with increased cancer or cardiovascular risk, but may be associated with improved survival during recovery from adverse conditions, such as infections or medical procedures, and with improved prognosis for some diseases."

The researchers had previously found increased all-cause mortality in the underweight and obese categories, and significantly decreased all-cause mortality in the overweight category, compared with normal weight.