Being too thin can be as dangerous to your health as being obese. Fatal risks are greatest in lean people and the fetuses of lean people, according to a Canadian study.
According to the World Health Organization, 2.8 million people die each year from obesity. It is a scourge against which governments are fighting, in particular by launching prevention campaigns. A completely justified strategy in view of the risks that obesity poses to health but which should perhaps also apply to thinness. Indeed, a Canadian study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health asserts that the excess mortality linked to thinness is equivalent to that linked to obesity.
Even more likely to die than obese people
The study conducted by Dr. Joel Ray sought to focus on studies examining the link between Body Mass Index (BMI) and deaths from any cause. With his team, Dr. Ray analyzed data from 51 studies on the subject.
The results of their analysis showed that for people with a BMI below 18.5, i.e. below the normal threshold, the risk of dying is 1.8 times greater than a person with a normal BMI ( between 18.5 and 24.9). Dr Ray recalls that an obese person (with a BMI between 30 and 35) has 1.2 times more risk of dying than a normal person and this risk shows to 1.3 times for people with severe obesity (35 and more).
These figures show that thinness is even more dangerous than obesity in terms of risk of mortality. The results do not even vary when factors like smoking, alcohol use, or lung disease are included in the research.
Leanness can be the result of malnutrition, excessive consumption of alcohol, tobacco, drugs or even related to psychiatric problems such as anorexia.
Leanness also influences the fetus
For the purposes of the study, Dr. Ray also analyzed the weight of newborns and stillbirths in the region of Ontario (Canada). He discovered that thinness endangered both mother and fetus.
This analysis complements the results of an American study published in the European Journal of Pharmacology. Researchers found that newborns weighing less than 2.5kg had delays in the development of certain organs. The co-author of the study, Ganesh Cherala, explained that “at the end of pregnancy, low-weight fetuses try to finish the development of their brain, even if necessary sacrificing the development of other organs such as the kidneys and liver. ”
For Dr. Ray, even as societies try to slow obesity, “we also have an obligation to be careful not to create an epidemic of lean adults and lean infants who are at the ideal weight.”
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