Obesity Standards May Miss Millions Of Women

Millions of obese women may be falling through the cracks of current weight guidelines, US doctors say. In a new study of women aged 20 to 33 years, they found that more than a quarter weren't labeled as obese according to widely used standards, even though more accurate measurements put them in that category. Hispanic women stood out in particular, with more than two-thirds landing in the obese range when doctors measured their body fat. If confirmed, that number would place them ahead of African American women, who have the highest obesity rates according to current US standards. ‘We are missing a lot of the women who need assistance,’ Dr. Abbey Berenson, who worked on the study, told Reuters Health. ‘We're not counseling them accurately.’ Obesity is a risk factor for high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. ‘There are probably effects on almost any organ in the body,’ said Berenson, an expert in women's health at the University of Texas...

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2010/04/22/eline/links/20100422elin017.html