Studies, you know I love them.

The faithful will swallow it whole, so long as logical reasoning is never allowed to be brought to bear on it. - Adolf Hitler, Munich 1935, Voice of Destruction

A recent study was released by researchers at the University at Buffalo school of Medicine. Didn't hear about it or see it? I guess the Eagle and the Star didn't have room. Or, it could be that it contradicts popular notions about fat folks.

The researchers examined the intensive care records of 62,000 people covering the period from 1966 to February 2007 from around the world. The researchers were looking to see if obesity was associated with a better or worse chance for survival among critically ill patients.

"The first thing that became apparent in the data was that 'obese' people made up a remarkably lower percentage of ICU patients. Only 25% of the ICU patients were 'obese', compared with 75% who were not 'nonobese'." Remember, to these kookie folks anyone with a BMI over 26 is obese. I think that is everyone I know. Don't want to put words in their mouths but it almost sounds like skeletons with skin over them made up 75% of ICU patients.

"The second thing that the data showed, looking at the deaths that occurred during ICU stays, there was "no mortality difference between the obese and the nonobese group," they said [RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.86-1.16]." RR stands for Relative Risk. A 1.00 means no risk. CI stands for Confidence Interval. A CI of 95% is not real good. It's a lot better than the 90% that smoken studies and many of the fat studies that are propagated in the media. The numbers at the end 0.86-1.16 are the upper and lower limits. I've never really understood how they calculate these numbers, just know that this is a pretty wide spread.

When the researchers examined the overall survival rates throughout hospital stays, the 'obese' patients were associated with a 17% higher chance of surviving hospitalization compared to nonobese patients. Now don't get real excited about the 17%. In the study world that is not a very big number. One could say it is not statistically significant. Newspapers and TV commentators would have you believe that 17% in a study is a big deal when they flaunt their crap about smoking or fat. It isn't, however. I know you are saying 17% is 17%. No, not in the study world. Perspective, to get to the 17% that you and I think of the study would have to say ~217%.

"The researchers concluded that 'mild obesity' (BMI 30 - <35) but even more significantly, 'moderate obesity' (BMI 35 - <40), had a protective effect during critical illness compared to 'overweight and 'healthy' weight patients. And contrary to popular wisdom, even "'morbid obesity' did not have an adverse effect on outcome."

Mmmm, butter, gizzards, chocolate, doughnuts.