The good news is, at last there is hope of some sanity entering the story. The science (the real science) is finally coming. For instance, a study of 33,000 American adults, published recently in the American Journal of Public Health (Vol 96, No.1, January 2006, 173-178), showed that male life expectancy is greatest for BMIs of about 26 - overweight under the CDC's rule, and equivalent to 24 lb extra for the typical man. For women, the study found an optimum BMI of about 23.5, about 7 lbs heavier than the CDC's standard.
The paper's author, Dr Jerome Gronniger, a government scientist, concluded that, "I found that the current definitions of obesity and overweight are imprecise predictors of mortality risk."
"Imprecise predictors"? Gronniger was clearly using "scientific understatement." It was, after all, a scientific publication. Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of Britain's National Obesity Forum was more blatant in a statement he made to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "It's now widely accepted that the BMI is useless for assessing the healthy weight of individuals." (My italics.) [In the UK, it's almost impossible to be sued, and there is no massive lobby of medical insurance companies looking for ways to avoid paying for your medical treatment, so commentators tend to be more forthcoming.]
Of course, any mathematician surely knew what Haslam now confirms the moment he or she took their first look at Quetelet's formula. It screams "junk math".
Numbers are one of the most powerful tools we have to understand our world and to improve our lives. But like all powerful tools, when used irresponsibly, they can do more harm than good. Medical professionals have enormous knowledge and experience that we all benefit from. I do regularly go for my annual physical, and for the most part I listen to my physician's advice. He knows a lot more than I do about the human body and health issues. I trust him - for the most part. But when the BMI comes up, we are definitely into territory where my expertise trumps his, and I can recognize a piece of numerological nonsense when I see it, and as a result I ignore that part of the proceedings. But if trained medical practitioners, backed up by august professional organizations such as a the CDC, are still so over-awed by such rubbish (mathematics does that to people, I see it all the time) that they continue to preach it as if it were gospel, then how can a patient with less mathematical sophistication hope to resist this annual incantation.
Since the entire sorry saga of the BMI was started by a mathematician - one of us - I think the onus is on us, as the world's experts on the formulation and application of mathematical formulas, to start to eradicate this nonsense and demand the responsible use of our product.
Heavens, next thing we know, some authority will be claiming that the golden ratio is the aspect ratio of the rectangle most pleasing to the human eye. Where will it all end?
After all that, I think I need a good long bike ride over the mountains to bring my blood pressure down.
The paper's author, Dr Jerome Gronniger, a government scientist, concluded that, "I found that the current definitions of obesity and overweight are imprecise predictors of mortality risk."
"Imprecise predictors"? Gronniger was clearly using "scientific understatement." It was, after all, a scientific publication. Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of Britain's National Obesity Forum was more blatant in a statement he made to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "It's now widely accepted that the BMI is useless for assessing the healthy weight of individuals." (My italics.) [In the UK, it's almost impossible to be sued, and there is no massive lobby of medical insurance companies looking for ways to avoid paying for your medical treatment, so commentators tend to be more forthcoming.]
Of course, any mathematician surely knew what Haslam now confirms the moment he or she took their first look at Quetelet's formula. It screams "junk math".
Numbers are one of the most powerful tools we have to understand our world and to improve our lives. But like all powerful tools, when used irresponsibly, they can do more harm than good. Medical professionals have enormous knowledge and experience that we all benefit from. I do regularly go for my annual physical, and for the most part I listen to my physician's advice. He knows a lot more than I do about the human body and health issues. I trust him - for the most part. But when the BMI comes up, we are definitely into territory where my expertise trumps his, and I can recognize a piece of numerological nonsense when I see it, and as a result I ignore that part of the proceedings. But if trained medical practitioners, backed up by august professional organizations such as a the CDC, are still so over-awed by such rubbish (mathematics does that to people, I see it all the time) that they continue to preach it as if it were gospel, then how can a patient with less mathematical sophistication hope to resist this annual incantation.
Since the entire sorry saga of the BMI was started by a mathematician - one of us - I think the onus is on us, as the world's experts on the formulation and application of mathematical formulas, to start to eradicate this nonsense and demand the responsible use of our product.
Heavens, next thing we know, some authority will be claiming that the golden ratio is the aspect ratio of the rectangle most pleasing to the human eye. Where will it all end?
After all that, I think I need a good long bike ride over the mountains to bring my blood pressure down.
