Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995                   TAG: 9509140078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL Q. HANEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY SAYS BEING PLUMP IS AN UNSUSPECTED RISK

Being even a little bit plump is bad for your health, a major new study of American women has found.

Health experts have long recognized the hazards of true obesity, but the new research from Harvard Medical School suggests that even love handles are a bad thing. Indeed, within reason, it appears that thinner is always better.

``It's a fairly simple message,'' said Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, the study director. ``Even mild to moderate overweight is associated with a substantial risk of premature death.''

Federal weight guidelines say average-height women over age 35 can safely weigh between 126 and 162 pounds. But the new research suggests that anything over 119 is too much.

In fact, at middle age, the average American woman - 5-feet-5-inches tall, between 150 and 160 pounds - runs a 30 percent higher risk of death than someone her height who weighs less than 120, Manson's study concludes.

Manson cautioned that the new data should not encourage people to abandon common sense and become anorexic thin. And smoking to stay thin is a bad gamble because of smokers' death risk.

The researchers estimate that weight is to blame for one-quarter of all deaths among middle-aged women. If the findings apply equally to men - and the researchers believe they probably do - that adds up to 300,000 weight-related deaths annually in the United States.

The report suggests that weight increases the risk of heart attacks and cancer, especially cancer of the colon, uterus and breast. In the study, nearly one-third of the cancer deaths among middle-aged women were related to being overweight.

The report, published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, was based on the Nurses' Health Study, which has followed 115,195 women nurses since 1976.

A separate study in the journal should ease concerns that yo-yo dieting is unhealthy. Dr. Carlos Iribarren from the University of Minnesota reviewed the effects of weight fluctuations in 6,537 middle-aged Japanese-American men in the Honolulu Heart Program. He found no sign that losing weight and gaining it back is harmful.