The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of BMI (body mass index) to assess underweight, normal or overweight in adults. The newspaper Izvestia was told about this by Daria Sergeeva, a cardiologist at SM-Clinic.
According to her, this index is calculated as the ratio of body weight in kilograms to the square of height in meters, and the optimal BMI for adults is in the range of up to 25 kilograms per square meter.
As noted by the cardiologist, according to WHO, the diagnosis of “overweight” or “obesity” in adults is made in the following cases: BMI greater than or equal to 25 – overweight; BMI greater than or equal to 30 – obesity. BMI less than 18.5 – underweight.
For example, for a person who is 170 cm tall, a weight over 73 kg will be considered overweight (BMI 25.3), and a weight over 87 kg indicates the presence of first degree obesity (BMI 30.1).
Sergeeva warned that an elevated BMI can become one of the main risk factors for many diseases – cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes mellitus, disorders of the musculoskeletal system (in particular, osteoarthritis is an extremely disabling degenerative disease joints); some cancers, including cancer of the endometrium, breast, ovary, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon.
However, the specialist noted, “being overweight or obese does not always lead to health problems.”
“However (such weight) is a reason to consult a doctor for an in-depth examination,” and “in case of identified problems (arterial hypertension, decreased glucose tolerance, lipid metabolism disorders), normalization of body weight is one of the few non-drug methods of treatment,” concluded the cardiologist.
Source: Rosbalt
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