Sub-weight? May be more risky than obesity

New Delhi: Inadequate people in India appear to be at greater risk of premature death than overweight or obese ones, the first study of India to badyze the causes of death

The study, which observed about 2,800 people with and without diabetes for more than 10 years, showed that underweight people are running a mortality risk multiplied by 1.5 compared to those with a normal weight. This risk was also higher in people who were underweight than in obese or obese people.

He also found that diabetic patients were three times more likely to die than others. mortality in diabetes. People with diabetes had a risk of kidney failure nearly six times higher than people without diabetes.

Poor glycemic control in diabetics can lead to kidney damage, heart disease or stroke, etc. The excess mortality rate observed among underweight people seems to contradict the popular belief that they are not obese or overweight.

But the researchers who conducted the study say that their results can be explained by the negative effects of malnutrition. "We are not saying that people should be aiming to get fat, but only that some people who are overweight or obese can be in perfect health – metabolically," said Ranjit Mohan Anjana, a diabetologist at the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation. who led the study.

"Our results hold cautious lessons for those who are certain to try Fad diets to lose weight quickly – people can lose weight, but they can also put themselves at risk for the consequences of undernutrition," he said.

Anjana and her colleagues followed groups of people with and without diabetes between 2001 and 2003 for more than a decade and badyzed the causes of death in both groups.

Their study , published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One found that the mortality rate in diabetic patients was about 28 per 1,000 person-years as against 8 per 1,000 person-years in people without diabetes [19659004] Person-years are a technical unit that takes into account the number of persons and the period of study.

In diabetic patients, diabetes was most marked in persons s aged 51 to 70 years, which, according to researchers, probably reflects the early onset of diabetes and inadequate control of blood sugar levels

. Researchers could say that their findings of increased risk of underweight deaths match recent findings elsewhere in the world. "Gross obesity is undoubtedly detrimental, but small degrees of overweight, especially in the elderly, may not be as bad as we thought," Vishwanathan said. Mohan, senior diabetologist and member of the study team.