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QHHL 
Your weight, especially whether or not it is optimal, is a critical factor affecting your health. The BMI (Body Mass Index: the ratio of your weight to your height squared) is the most widely used parameter for quantitative assessment of your weight balance. Quite often it is used as an indicator associated with overall body health. This interpretation creates problems.
In the recent publication “Stop using BMI as measure of health,' say researchers “ , an example of such a BMI use is given. As is stated in the article, nearly 75 million Americans were misclassified using BMI. This study showed that 54 million Americans classified as obese or very obese were in perfect health according to cardio-metabolic measures, while 21 million whose BMI put them in the normal category were unhealthy. The negative consequences are obvious.At least 3 questions arose:
1) Can the BMI be used as a single indicator of comprehensive individual health status?
2) Why is the BMI used as such an indicator?
3) How accurately does the BMI represent your optimal weight?
The most relevant answer to the second question is “because the BMI is simple to measure”.
A huge number of people are misdiagnosed. The example cited in the above mentioned publication answers the first question. The answer is negative. The answer to the third question is not that obvious and it depends on whether or not the BMI can be used at all. Intuitively, we understand that people are different and probably cannot be described based on one standard. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that the BMI is a false indicator as is stated in the above mentioned article. It can be used successfully under certain conditions but, of course, not as a single indicator of overall health.
The BMI is an indicator representing only one of many factors defining health status. More indicators are required to have a more complete picture of your health. Only consideration of a number of factors reflecting different aspects of health can give you a more realistic view.
There are some specific applications where the BMI can be used as a reasonably accurate prognostic tool. As was shown in “Pregnancy BMI & Infant Mortality” , the pregnancy body mass index (BMI) was strongly related to infant mortality, neonatal and postneonatal, even after controlling for multiple risks.
There is no sense in discussing whether the BMI is a useful criterion. It is useful if you interpret its meaning reasonably. No one single indicator can be used as the only parameter representing overall health status. It must be used in connection with other parameters.
Don’t rush to defame the BMI, just use it rationally. The cost of even small diagnostic errors is too high.
