“The success of weight loss surgery in treating the complications associated with obesity is most probably related to the reduction of inflammatory mediators,” concludes a paper from researchers at the Obesity and Nutrition Research Center, Department of Surgery, from The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Obesity increases the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in women according to a study from researchers at Utah State University. The risk of Alzheimers increases 36 pecent in women for every one unit increase in body mass index (BMI) at the age of 70. This association was not found in men.

Obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and excessive or impaired insulin secretion are associated with more than 20 degenerative diseases according to a new paper from the German Institute for Human Nutrition, in Nuthetal-Berlin, Germany.

Larger hips are associated with a lower risk of death for both men and women after adjusting for a person’s waist measurement or body mass index (BMI) or both according to a study from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, The Danish Cancer Society, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Here is the American Dietetic Assoication’s position on weight management as of 2002.

THE RISK OF TYPE II DIABETES IS 11 TIMES GREATER for a women with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 compared to one with a BMI of 20.

THE RISK OF ISCHEMIC STROKE IS 2.4 TIMES AS GREAT in obese women compared to lean women according to a recent study.

OBESITY INCREASES THE RISK OF PROSTATE CANCER as much as 40 percent concludes a recent study.

A body mass index of 22-23 in women and 24-25 in men is associated with the lowest mortality.

“Clinicians are likely to encounter morbidity more frequently among their patients with elevated BMI, even those patients in the overweight category [with a body mass index greater than 25],” concludes a recent study by researchers from Tufts University, Harvard School of Public Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly one-third of the deaths from coronary heart disease and over three-fourths of the deaths from diabetes are due to excess weight according to a recent paper.

Systolic blood pressure is 9 mm Hg higher in obese men than in normal-weight men according to an analysis of 1029 men participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Baltimore.

People who gain 11 to 17.3 pounds as adults are 1.9 times more likely to develop type II diabetes mellitus and 1.3 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who lose weight or maintain a stable weight after the age of 18-years-old.

“Several epidemiologic studies have shown upwards of threefold excess risks [for cancer of the esophagus] among overweight individuals”, according to a recent paper. Tobacco and alcohol consumption are the primary causes.

Belly fat is a more important than BMI for the risk of gout according to a 1997 study.

Gaining or losing weight does not increase the risk of ischemic heart disease in older men according to an 8-year follow-up study of 2903 men involved in the Copenhagen Male Study.

Based on current trends, obesity will become No. 1 preventable cause of death by 2005, causing more than 500,000 deaths a year according to a study from researchers from the Centers for Disease Control.

Being overweight at 22-years-old increases a man’s risk of dying later in life, whereas being overweight in middle adulthood does not increase the risk according to a recent analysis.

“The data linking overweight and obesity to adverse health outcomes are well established and incontrovertible,” concludes a paper by the National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity.

SEVERE OBESITY increases the number of sick days and disability concludes a study from Sweden.

LOW BACK PAIN IS MORE COMMON among overweight or large-waisted women, but not among overweight men according to a recent study.

JOINT PAIN IS ASSOCIATED WITH greater body weight and body mass index (BMI), but not bone density or bone fractures says a study which involving 690 postmenopausal Japanese-American women aged 55 to 93 years.

OBESITY PREDICTS HEART DISEASE independent of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar notes Marta Van Loan in an editorial accompanying the previous study. She also points out that upper body obesity is a better predictor of heart disease than other measures of obesity like body mass index (BMI). A paper by Simopoulos and Van Itallie identified this connection back in 1984.

Severe obesity shortens lifespan 5 to 20 years according to a paper from researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.