Obesity will kill you

There's nothing healthy about obesity--and if you spend too many years with too many pounds, you will pay a hefty price.

Millions of people are in denial about their condition, and now even some researchers are getting in on the act: A new study claims that it's possible to be both obese and healthy.

It defies all credibility.

Dutch researchers looked at the health records of 1,325 obese people between the ages of 28 and 75. They were part of the 8,356 participants in a study called PREVEND, or the Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease.

The researchers found that 90 of the obese people--less than 7 percent--had no history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high triglycerides. And none of them were taking cholesterol meds.

Over seven years, only one of these patients developed cardiovascular disease, on par with the number of healthy normal-weight people who developed the condition.

That led researcher Dr. Andre van Beek of the University Medical Center in Groningen to conclude, "it's the metabolic risk profile that counts, and not the weight itself."

I wish he had followed these patients right to the end of their lives before making such a bold statement. I'd like to see their life expectancies, causes of death and total risk of cardiovascular disease--because I'd bet anything he wouldn't be so quick to make this claim if he did.

And of course, the ravages of obesity can go far beyond heart disease and diabetes. Obesity can wreck everything from your mobility to your sex life--but as long as you didn't have the metabolic risk factors mentioned in this new study, you'd be "healthy" according to these researchers.

But if you're obese, there's no two ways about it: You're not healthy. It might take longer than seven years, but the toll of obesity will catch up to you eventually.

So skip the denial and don't look to studies like this one for reassurance. If you're fighting your own Battle of the Bulge, fight to win--or risk losing your life.

On a mission for your health,

Ed Martin
Editor, House Calls