According to a new medical study, patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and are overweight may live longer than diabetics who have a normal weight.
Researchers call this another example of “obesity paradox”.
Although health officials warn against the dangers of being overweight, and many employers are trying to help their workers to lose weight by giving them special wellness programs, the experts are still puzzled by the link between weight and longevity.
There are many studies showing that obesity and overweight increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, somehow, patients who are overweight and suffer from a cardiovascular disease appear to live longer than the patients who are of normal weight.
Also, it is known that obesity is a risk factor of developing type 2 diabetes, but scientists were not sure if being overweight can increase the survival chance of diabetics.
The researchers tried to find an answer after analyzing the data from sixteen different studies, which revealed conflicting findings.
Some studies suggested that overweight diabetes patients had lower mortality, while other studies showed the opposite.
The scientists wanted the new study to be different from previous ones. The team of researchers was led by doctors Pierluigi Costanzo and Stephen Atkin from Britain’s University of Hull.
The study followed exactly 10,568 patients who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for almost 11 years.
The study revealed that although obese and overweight patients had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes, they seemed to live more than diabetics who were of normal weight.
The researchers detailed the findings of their new study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to the experts, overweight is when a body mass index is of 25 to 29.9, which means 146 to 174 pounds for a person that is about 5 feet 4 inches.
A normal weight is when the body mass index is 18.5 to 24.9, or 108 pounds to 145 pounds at the height of 5ft 4.
During the study, underweight patients were at the highest risk of dying, by almost three times the mortality of diabetics who had a normal weight. But the best survival rate belonged to the overweight patients, with 13% less likely to die, compared to obese or normal-weight patients.
The researchers tried to explain how this could be possible saying that being overweight could act as a protection barrier against health conditions like osteoporosis, which can be fatal.
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