Weight and health: no simple answers

When we're worried about our weight, is it for reasons of appearance, or health? And what if -- shades of Sleeper -- it were discovered that being fat increased longevity? I'd bet on fashion over health.

In the event, it seems the relationship of weight to longevity is more complex than once believed, as today's NY Times reports:

About two years ago, a group of federal researchers reported that overweight people have a lower death rate than people who are normal weight, underweight or obese. Now, investigating further, they found out which diseases are more likely to lead to death in each weight group.

Linking, for the first time, causes of death to specific weights, they report that overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, infections and lung disease. And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease. . .

"If we use the criteria of mortality, then the term 'overweight' is a misnomer," said Daniel McGee, professor of statistics at Florida State University.

"I believe the data," said Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego. A body mass index of 25 to 30, the so-called overweight range, "may be optimal," she said.

I haven't looked at the study myself, and there may be flaws in the methodology. Importantly, the article notes:

The researchers caution that a study like theirs cannot speak to cause and effect. They do not yet know, precisely, what it is about being underweight, for instance, that increases the death rate from everything except heart disease and cancer. Researchers tried to rule out those who were thin, because they might have been already sick. They also ruled out smokers, and the results did not change.

The reference to "ruling out" (that is, excluding from the study sample) "those who were thin" makes no sense; if no thin subjects, then no underweight subjects. I wonder what correction was being made that the NYT reporter so misconstrued? I could see there being real problems with the composition of the group classified as "underweight", with some just being lean, while others might be obviously sickly -- even if not smokers or suffering from chronic disease. The problem for study designers is that sickliness is easy to recognize but difficult to define.

Loopy laws

A little-known law which prohibits people dying while in the Houses of Parliament has been voted the UK's most ludicrous piece of legislation.

Another law which states it is treason to use a postage stamp upside down was placed in second place by those polled by UKTV Gold.

The most absurd international law was judged to be in the US state of Ohio, where it is illegal to get fish drunk.

From the BBC. Other noteworthy contenders:

# 3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

# 5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter

# 6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet

# 10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow

Four-armed is . . .

Doctors in India operating on a two-year-old child who was born with four arms and four legs say that the surgery is going well.

Lakshmi Tatma is joined at the pelvis to what is, in effect, a headless, undeveloped twin. . .

The child has been hailed by some in her village in the northern state of Bihar as the reincarnation of the multi-limbed Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.

From the BBC.

UPDATE: More here, with X-rays.

King Tut unmasked

The face of Egypt's most famous ancient ruler, King Tutankhamun, has been put on public display for the first time.

Archaeologists took the mummy from its stone sarcophagus and placed it in a climate-controlled case inside his tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings.

The event comes 85 years to the day after the pharaoh's tomb was discovered by British explorer Howard Carter.

Until now, only about 50 living people have seen the face of the boy king, who died more than 3,000 years ago.

But that face, as now visible, may owe a lot to reconstructive surgery:

The centrepiece of the tomb was the pharaoh's mummified body, covered in amulets and jewels and wearing a solid gold burial mask.

In an effort to extricate the treasures, Carter and his team cut the body into pieces, chopping off the limbs and head and using hot knives and wires to remove the gold mask which was fused to Tutankhamun's face by the embalming process.

The body was reconstructed and returned to its original sarcophagus in 1926. . .

From the BBC. And more here (with pictures), where it is noted:

The mummy is in danger of being damaged by the heat and humidity from the thousands of tourists who visit his tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. . .

Although the treasures of Tutankhamun were moved to the Egyptian museum long ago, the mummy was not.

Note also this National Geographic article from last month:

King Tutankhamun likely died after falling from his chariot while hunting, Egypt's top archaeologist says in an upcoming TV documentary, offering new insights into the boy pharaoh's long-debated death. . .

The new theory stems largely from examinations of some of the 5,000 artifacts found in the king's tomb, which suggest he was an active, sporting young man and not the sheltered and fragile boy often portrayed by history. . .

"There's been, to some extent, a perception in the past of Tut as the 'tragic' boy king," said John Coleman Darnell, an Egyptologist at Yale University and author of a recent book called Tutankhamun's Armies.

"I think this has been done less in terms of looking at the evidence and what we know and more to sort of heighten the pathos of the wealth of the tomb and the fact that he wasn't terribly old when he died."

Other experts agree that Tutankhamun was a highly active ruler.

"There is certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that he was not only an archer, but also a good charioteer," said David P. Silverman, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania . . .

"He came from the Tuthmosis family, who were well known earlier in the dynasty as military men and also huntsmen," Silverman explained.