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April 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) — The way that obesity is
currently measured greatly underestimates the actual number of women who
are obese, a new study suggests.
Almost half of women currently labeled as not obese by virtue of their
body mass index (BMI) turned out to be obese when measured by a newer
method focusing on their percentage of body fat by weight, the research
found.
Researchers Dr. Eric Braverman, president of the Path Foundation in New
York City, and Dr. Nirav Shah, the current New York state health
commissioner, say that an accurate measurement of obesity should include
percentage of body fat as well as the ratio of height and weight known as
BMI.
“If you’re counting on looking at your body fat based on body mass
index, it’s virtually completely unreliable,” Braverman said.
Based on BMI alone, “roughly 30 percent of Americans are obese, but
when you use other methods, closer to 60 percent are obese,” he said. “We
call BMI the ‘baloney mass index,'” Braverman noted.
“We are fatter than we realize; it’s the percent of body fat, not BMI,
that makes you obese,” he explained.
The problem is especially seen among women, because “as women age, they
tend to lose bone and replace muscle with fat,” Braverman said.
The report was published online April 2 in the journal PLoS
ONE.
Braverman and Shah found that when women had a special scan called a
dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan, which measures body fat,
muscle mass and bone density, obesity measured by BMI alone underestimated
obesity.
Among the more than 1,300 people who underwent DEXA in the study,
almost half of women (48 percent) were misclassified as not obese by BMI,
but were found to be obese by percent body fat on DEXA.
In contrast, 25 percent of men were misclassified as being obese by
BMI, but were in fact not obese by percent body fat.
In fact, the researchers said, all of the study participants who were
found to be obese by DEXA were women.
Braverman noted that a DEXA scan is expensive, so it wouldn’t be
practical for routine assessment. However, a simple blood test that
measures leptin levels can serve the same purpose, he said. Leptin is a
hormone involved in regulating appetite and metabolism.
In the study, levels of leptin correlated to body fat. The researchers
said leptin levels can be used along with BMI as a more accurate measure
of obesity.
“Leptin is a better marker of obesity in women,” Braverman stressed,
adding that successful weight loss depends on lowering leptin levels.
However, he said, women can develop leptin resistance — a metabolic
disorder most often seen after menopause — which makes dieting
ineffective.
People with leptin levels below 5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) are
considered thin and levels up to 10 are considered normal weight. Leptin
levels of 10 to 30 ng/mL are correctable through diet and exercise,
Braverman said, but extremely high levels are hard to reduce.
The effect of leptin is not as powerful in men, he said. But men with
low leptin levels are very fit, he added.
Braverman believes that, eventually, leptin tests will become a regular
part of a physical exam and people with high levels will be treated with
various drugs and diets designed to reduce leptin levels.
“Everyone is going to get a leptin level [reading] just as they do
cholesterol [level reading] today,” he said.
Commenting on the study, Dr. William O’Neill, a professor of cardiology
and executive dean for research at the University of Miami Miller School
of Medicine, said that “it’s a little bit alarming.”
“Traditionally we have used BMI. But this study tells you BMI is
relatively accurate for men, but for women it really underestimates how
many women are obese,” he said.
There aren’t a lot of data yet on the health benefits of lowering
leptin, O’Neill pointed out. “We will have to see if elevated leptin
levels are a cause of a bad outcome. This hasn’t been done yet,” he
noted.
“It certainly sensitizes me to the possibility that ordering leptin
levels in women who might be obese may be worthwhile,” O’Neill added.
Whether lowering leptin levels alone will reduce obesity isn’t known.
“We don’t know if leptin can be a primary target — it may just be a
marker of body fat,” he suggested.
But people with high leptin levels should lose weight, O’Neill
said.
More information
For more on obesity, visit the U.S.
National Library of Medicine.
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