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Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Secrets To Immortality
I'll be back later. I'm going out to get myself a plate of alfreido, a big ass pecan pie - and butter tarts. Lots of butter tarts.
The new analysis found that obesity - being extremely overweight - is indisputably lethal. But like several recent smaller studies, it found that people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight.
I know it's a long shot, but you know - if there's just a slight chance an extra five pounds means I'll have a a lower risk of death, where's the harm?
Last year, the CDC issued a study that said being overweight causes 400,000 deaths a year and would soon overtake tobacco as the top U.S. killer. After scientists inside and outside the agency questioned the figure, the CDC admitted making a calculation error and lowered its estimate three months ago to 365,000.CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said because of the uncertainty in calculating the health effects of being overweight, the CDC is not going to use the brand- new figure of 25,814 in its public awareness campaigns and is not going to scale back its fight against obesity.
"There's absolutely no question that obesity is a major public health concern of this country," she said. Gerberding said the CDC will work to improve methods for calculating the consequences of obesity.
Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said she is not convinced the new estimate is right.
"I think it's likely there has been a weakening of the mortality effect due to improved treatments for obesity," she said. "But I think this magnitude is surprising and requires corroboration."
It reminds me of a news report I heard over radio last summer, announcing that men who quit smoking by the age of 50 cut their "cut their risk of death" by a whopping 50%.
All my life, I've assumed "risk of death" to be 100%. it makes me wonder why more men don't take up cigarettes, just so they can quit and double their chance at immortality.
Posted by Kate McMillan on April 19, 2005 in Food and Drink | Permalink
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Comments
Obesity is the new tobacco. It's so much fun to watch the totalitarian-lunatic-leftie-medical-scientific establishment get bit in the ass by reality from time to time. They can't fool all the people all of the time, although they still keep trying.
Posted by: John | 2005-04-19 7:35:24 PM
John, I like it, I like it. You have a way with words concerning the t.l.l.m.s. establishment. Yet their asses are so hard they seldom realize that they have been bit.
Posted by: Jack | 2005-04-20 12:12:00 AM
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