Diabetes Study Suggests a Little Extra Weight Tied to Longer Survival
Diabetes Study Suggests a Little Extra Weight Tied to Longer Survival
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, May 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A controversial new study suggests that some extra weight may be linked to a longer life for people with type 2 diabetes.
Compared to underweight or normal-weight people with type 2 diabetes, those who were overweight but not obese were less likely to die over the 10-year study period, British researchers found.
But this isn't to say that folks with type 2 diabetes can safely fatten up, researchers said. The study only showed an association between extra weight and longer survival, and not a cause-and-effect link.
"These results are exploratory and hypothesis-generating," said Dr. Pierluigi Costanzo, lead researcher of the study. "Living a healthy lifestyle aiming to achieve weight loss should be always pursued as already indicated by guidelines."
Another expert agreed.
"I don't think there is enough data to support extending life by being overweight," said Dr. Spyros Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who wasn't involved in the study.
The current advice to patients with type 2 diabetes is to lose weight, which helps control blood sugar, prevent chronic diseases associated with diabetes, and prolong life, Mezitis said.
While the overweight diabetics in this study appeared to live longer, they were also more likely -- along with obese patients -- to be hospitalized for heart problems, the researchers found.
Both type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly common. Although obesity is a risk factor for both heart disease and type 2 diabetes, some previous studies have reported that overweight patients with heart disease live longer than normal-weight heart patients. The research team wanted to see if the same might be true for people with type 2 diabetes.
"Previous studies have shown conflicting results about this topic," said Costanzo, of the academic cardiology unit at Hull York Medical School in England.
His conclusion after conducting his own study: Normal-weight patients with type 2 diabetes should be considered at possibly higher risk for dying than overweight people.
Several possible explanations for this "obesity paradox" exist, Costanzo said. One is that the type 2 diabetes that results from obesity is fundamentally different from diabetes that develops for other reasons, he said.
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, May 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A controversial new study suggests that some extra weight may be linked to a longer life for people with type 2 diabetes.
Compared to underweight or normal-weight people with type 2 diabetes, those who were overweight but not obese were less likely to die over the 10-year study period, British researchers found.
But this isn't to say that folks with type 2 diabetes can safely fatten up, researchers said. The study only showed an association between extra weight and longer survival, and not a cause-and-effect link.
"These results are exploratory and hypothesis-generating," said Dr. Pierluigi Costanzo, lead researcher of the study. "Living a healthy lifestyle aiming to achieve weight loss should be always pursued as already indicated by guidelines."
Another expert agreed.
"I don't think there is enough data to support extending life by being overweight," said Dr. Spyros Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who wasn't involved in the study.
The current advice to patients with type 2 diabetes is to lose weight, which helps control blood sugar, prevent chronic diseases associated with diabetes, and prolong life, Mezitis said.
While the overweight diabetics in this study appeared to live longer, they were also more likely -- along with obese patients -- to be hospitalized for heart problems, the researchers found.
Both type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly common. Although obesity is a risk factor for both heart disease and type 2 diabetes, some previous studies have reported that overweight patients with heart disease live longer than normal-weight heart patients. The research team wanted to see if the same might be true for people with type 2 diabetes.
"Previous studies have shown conflicting results about this topic," said Costanzo, of the academic cardiology unit at Hull York Medical School in England.
His conclusion after conducting his own study: Normal-weight patients with type 2 diabetes should be considered at possibly higher risk for dying than overweight people.
Several possible explanations for this "obesity paradox" exist, Costanzo said. One is that the type 2 diabetes that results from obesity is fundamentally different from diabetes that develops for other reasons, he said.
