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The American Medical Association (AMA) is now discouraging the use of body mass index (BMI), calling it an "imperfect" and "problematic" means of assessing body fat and claiming it has been used for "racist exclusion."

The traditional body mass index (BMI) measure may have misclassified millions of Americans as not having obesity, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. Among over 9,700 adults identified as having obesity according to total body fat percentage estimates using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans, the BMI measure only accurately classified 47%, reported Aayush Visaria, MD, MPH, of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at ENDO 2023opens in a new tab or window, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society. When ruling out obesity, BMI and DEXA measures were congruent 95% of...

A leading US medical organization is urging doctors to ditch body mass index (BMI) as the primary measurement for a healthy bodyweight, citing its 'racist' roots. The American Medical Association, the largest organization of doctors in the US, said the metric has been used for ‘racist exclusion’ and fails to consider differences in body composition that vary based on race and sex.

The American Medical Association announced it has adopted recommendations deemphasizing the use of body mass index as a measurement in medicine

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The American Medical Association is clarifying the role of a person's body mass index, also known as BMI. The group is urging doctors to de-emphasize its use when assessing health and obesity of patients and acknowledge that the measurement has been used for "racist exclusion" and has caused "historical harm." The main concerns the AMA said it's found with the BMI system is that it does not account for body composition, muscle mass, racial differences and genetics. The recommendation comes after an AMA report recognized issues of racist exclusion because BMI is based primarily on data...

A new study in the journal Nature Medicine analyzes longitudinal and cross-sectional changes in blood analytes associated with variations in body mass index (BMI). The prevalence of obesity has been increasing over the past four decades among adolescents, adults, and children throughout the world. Several studies have reported obesity to be a major risk factor for multiple chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome (MetS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and certain types of cancer. Even 5% weight loss among obese individuals can improve metabolic and cardiovascular health, as well as reduce the risk for obesity-related chronic diseases....

After adjusting for biases in BMI, a study found people carrying excess weight had far worse mortality outcomes than previously known. ... A new study out this month reveals obesity is far more dangerous than previously reported. According to a new paper published in the journal Population Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, people who are obese or carry excess weight face a risk of death anywhere from 22 to 91 percent higher than those at a healthy weight. “Existing studies have likely underestimated the mortality consequences of living in a country where cheap, unhealthy food has grown increasingly...

A new study has found that in women with BRCA gene mutations, having a high body mass index (BMI) is linked to more DNA damage in breast cells. Specifically, the study discovered that elevated BMI was associated with more damage to epithelium tissue DNA. Priya Bhardwaj, Ph.D. Candidate and her team worked with cultured healthy breast tissues collected from individuals with mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The samples were categorized as coming from a donor of lower weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2, n = 43) or overweight/obese (BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2, n = 26). BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are protecting...

A decrease in body mass index (BMI) was associated with both a lower incidence of the structural defects of knee osteoarthritis and a lower likelihood that such defects would progress, or get worse. Researchers examined radiographic analyses of knees at baseline and at 4 to 5 years' follow up from adults with and without the structural defects of knee osteoarthritis at the start of the study. The team assessed 9,683 knees (from 5,774 individuals) in an 'incidence cohort' and 6,075 knees (from 3,988 individuals) in a 'progression cohort.' A 1-unit decrease in BMI corresponded to a 4.76% reduction in odds...

Chris Christie scolded Republican governors who are blocking municipalities and school boards from implementing mask and vaccine mandates, saying their heavy-handed control of local coronavirus mitigation efforts violates the tenets of conservatism. “I don't think governors should be telling the locals they can't do it. A real conservative, I think, says, 'Government is best that works at the level closest to the people,' the former two-term New Jersey governor and Republican 2024 contender said during a virtual appearance at the annual Texas Tribune Festival.

A Texas man who had organized a “Freedom Rally” in protest of COVID-19 restrictions is now on a ventilator after becoming infected with COVID, according to his pregnant wife. ...The San Angelo Standard-Times had reported that Caleb had been hospitalized with COVID for more than a month, with Wallace telling the paper that her husband initially refused to get tested for the virus and tried his own vitamin regimen to treat himself rather than seeing a doctor. Most days his wife said that she and her three daughters FaceTime him in the hospital with the help of a nurse, though...

Cosmopolitan is featuring multiple “plus-size,” “fat” women in a magazine issue that commends every body size as “healthy.” The February 2021 edition of Cosmopolitan features women of various body sizes with superimposed text reading “This is healthy! 11 women on why wellness doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all.” Callie Thorpe, a “plus size” blogger and model is among the featured women, and described to Cosmopolitan her involvement with the “body neutrality movement, which focused on what your body can do rather than how it looks.” “Plus-size people often feel like they can’t be part of the wellness space,” Thorpe told Cosmopolitan....

Robert H. Shmerling, MD Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing Do you know your BMI? Increasingly, people know theirs, just as they know their cholesterol. If you don’t know your BMI, you can use a BMI calculator available online, including this one at Harvard Health Publishing. All you need is your height and weight. Or, you can calculate it yourself, using this formula: BMI = (Weight in Pounds x 703) / (Height in inches x Height in inches). So, now that you know your BMI, is it worth knowing? What are you going to do with it? What your BMI...

The Daily Mail has reported that The Rolling Stones are threatening President Donald Trump with legal action over the use of the band's songs at his rallies despite their objections. The classic Rolling Stones hit 'You Can´t Always Get What You Want' from 1969 can be heard many times at Trump's events throughout the country. According to the Daily Mail report, the band's legal team is working with the BMI music rights organization to stop the use of their songs as part of President Trump's campaign. In an official announcement the band wrote: 'The BMI have notified the Trump campaign...

In the piece, Klingenstein had a six-word slogan Rush thought would crystallize the Trump campaign: “Preserve the American way of life.” “And that’s what struck me” about the piece, Limbaugh said, “because, folks, that’s what’s at stake, the American way of life. That’s what is being fought over.”

Trump campaign rallies typically conclude with the Rolling Stones’ classic 1969 song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” But that rousing musical coda may soon be coming to an end. BMI, the musical and performing rights organization, has reportedly told the Trump campaign to stop playing the Rolling Stones’ music at rallies, saying that there could be legal consequences if the campaign ignores the warning. Deadline reported that the Trump campaign has a license that authorizes the public performance of more than 15 million musical works in the BMI catalogue. But a provision allows BMI to exclude a song...

I think it’s safe to say the entertainment industry – including the music industry - isn’t exactly friendly to conservatives and Republicans.Indeed, since 2008, the music industry has directed at least 80 percent of its annual campaign donations to Democrats, while the entertainment crowd as a whole donated over $8 million to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, compared to less than $300,000 to Donald Trump.And yet…Two music industry giants – the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) are now practically camped out on President Trump’s Department of Justice doorstep, hat in hand,...

Early signs of type 2 diabetes can be identified more than 20 years before diagnosis, according to new research presented at this year's European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Berlin, Germany (1-5 October). The Japanese study tracked over 27,000 non-diabetic adults (average age 49 years) between 2005 and 2016 and found that increased fasting glucose, higher body mass index (BMI) and impaired insulin sensitivity were detectable up to 10 years before the diagnosis of diabetes as well as prediabetes. [snip] "As the vast majority of people with type 2 diabetes go through the stage of...

The school said it required students to be between the 5 and 85 percentiles as far as BMI, which is marked in the nutrition category, and her daughter was in the 94 percentile. After Dickens' husband received the letter in the mail, he immediately called his wife and asked, "So, is the school calling our kid fat?" The letter required Dickens to bring her daughter to her pediatrician for further evaluation for her nutrition and must provide proof to the school that she did so. "I understand hearing and vision because that affects their ability to be educated the proper...

Last year I was visiting a rural hospital in Chhattisgarh, one of the poorest and hungriest states in India. The patients waiting in the corridors were thin and bony, with dangerously low blood counts and anemia. So I was shocked when I watched the doctors at Jan Swasthya Sahyog clinic treat patient after patient for diabetes and heart disease. The public perception of type II diabetes is that it’s a disease of excess—the result of too much sugar in our diets and a sedentary lifestyle. But a documentary by executive producer Elliot Kirschner, director Adam Bolt, producer Jessica Harrop, and...