Health
BMI measurement deemed ‘racist’ in new medical report: ‘This is politics, not medicine’
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 comments were included in a report presented at the 2023 AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois earlier this month.
“BMI cutoffs are based on the imagined ideal Caucasian and [do] not consider a person’s gender or ethnicity,” the report stated.
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The AMA also claimed that the history of the BMI is rooted in “eugenics,” which is “the scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations,” per the National Human Genome Research Institute.
What is BMI?
First created back in the mid-1800s by a Belgian mathematician named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, the BMI has been the international standard for measuring obesity since the 1980s, according to many sources, though some experts have questioned its validity.
A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing his or her weight by the square of his or her height in feet.
For example, someone who is 5’5″ and 135 pounds would have a BMI of 23.2.
On the BMI scale, any number lower than 18.5 is considered underweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A measurement between 18.5 and less than 25 falls within the healthy weight range.
Someone with a BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight.
Any measurement 30 or higher indicates obesity — while a number of over 40 qualifies as severe obesity, according to the BMI scale.
Some say BMI linked to ‘White supremacy’ and ‘history of harm’
The National Alliance for Eating Disorders, based in Florida, has voiced its support of the AMA’s recommendation to de-emphasize the BMI.
It also called for it to be scrapped altogether “due to its racist and sexist standards and long history of harm, including harm toward those most marginalized in our communities.”
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“We advocate for the recognition of weight diversity and hope that the medical field prioritizes health measurement tools that take into account the many factors that contribute to and impact a person’s health status,” said Dr. Katie Mittelstaedt, outreach and clinical consultant for group, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Another eating disorder support organization, Project HEAL in Brooklyn, New York, echoes the claims that the BMI is rooted in racism.
“The BMI is based on research from the 1830s meant solely to study populations of white European men and does not have the medical relevance or authority it has been purported to have,” said Serena Nangia, spokesperson for Project HEAL, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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“BMI has for decades been held inaccurately as the gold standard for the measurement of health, but its origins, as well as its uses, are rooted in white supremacy.”
‘It’s not racist — it’s called good medicine,’ doctor says
Dr. Marc Siegel, professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, spoke out against the AMA’s stance on “The Ingraham Angle” earlier this week.
“I didn’t believe the AMA was going to get involved in cancel culture, but now they’re canceling the body mass index, which is the thing I look at to at least start me off in the direction of obesity,” he said.
The doctor said he uses the BMI as a basic guideline to determine whether a patient is in a category that requires closer monitoring.
“It’s not racist — it’s called good medicine,” he said.
Dr. Siegel said he believes the AMA’s new policy was fueled by the body positivity movement — but he cautioned that removing the BMI measurement is a step in the “wrong direction” and could “lead to bad health outcomes.”
He said, “We don’t have enough prevention as it is, and we’re moving away from prevention.”
Removing the BMI measurement is a step in the “wrong direction.”
The doctor warned that the AMA’s call to abolish the BMI could inhibit the ability to get insurance companies to pay for treating obesity.
While Siegel does agree with the AMA’s assertion that visceral fat — which is fat that’s found in the abdomen — is the most worrisome type, he said he still relies on the BMI as an overall indication of whether someone is at a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure.
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“I don’t need someone taking a tool out of my toolbox, and that’s what they’re doing here,” he said.
“This is politics, not medicine.”
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Health
Honeybees can detect lung cancer, researchers say
What happens when you pair honeybees and halitosis? Potentially a life-saving new method to screen for cancer, according to one study.
Researchers at Michigan State University have learned that honeybees can detect chemicals associated with lung cancer in human breath. The insects were able to sniff out human lung cancer biomarkers with a remarkable 82% success rate, according to a study published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
“These results indicate that the honeybee olfactory system can be used as a sensitive biological gas sensor to detect human lung cancer,” the study authors wrote.
“Insects have an amazing sense of smell the same way dogs do,” said MSU professor Debajit Saha, according to an MSU news release.
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Saha, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, sought to determine whether honeybees could distinguish chemicals in a healthy person’s breath from that of someone sick with lung cancer.
His team developed a “recipe” for a synthetic breath mixture that contained six compounds present in the breath of someone with cancer and a synthetic “healthy” breath mixture.
“It took a steady hand to create the recipe,” said Elyssa Cox, Saha’s former lab manager. “We tested the synthetic lung cancer versus healthy human breath mixtures on approximately 20 bees.”
The researchers placed each live bee in a custom 3D-printed harness and attached a tiny electrode to its brain to measure activity.
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“We pass those odors on to the antenna of the honeybees and recorded the neural signals from their brain,” said Saha. “We see a change in the honeybee’s neural firing response.”
The researchers found that the bees were able to detect the cancer-indicating compounds even in small amounts.
“The honeybees detected very small concentrations; it was a very strong result,” said Saha. “Bees can differentiate between minute changes in the chemical concentrations of the breath mixture, which is in the parts per 1 billion range.”
The bees also could tell the difference between the synthetic lung cancer breath and healthy breath.
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Scientists hope this research will lead to the development of a sensor based on a honeybee brain that can be used to test human breath for the presence of lung cancer.
“What’s amazing is the honeybees’ ability to not only detect cancer cells, but also distinguish between cell lines of various types of lung cancer,” said Autumn McLane-Svoboda, a graduate student on Saha’s team. “The future implications for this are huge, as our sensor could allow for patients to receive specific cancer diagnoses quickly, which is imperative for correct treatment routes.”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. An estimated 235,580 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2024 in the U.S., according to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation.
Smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer and is responsible for 80% of lung cancer deaths.
Early detection of high-risk lung cancer can reduce the chance of death by up to 20%.
Health
COVID vaccine companies told to focus on KP.2 variant for fall shots, per FDA announcement
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that COVID vaccine manufacturers update their formulas for fall doses, in an attempt to target the KP.2 strain of the JN.1 variant.
The Thursday announcement came just a week after the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted to recommend a “monovalent JN.1-lineage vaccine” at its June 5 meeting.
As of the end of March 2024, the KP.2 variant was responsible for just 4% of infections in the U.S., according to the COVID Data Tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Meanwhile, over 50% of infections at that time were attributed to its parental strain, JN.1.
Just a few weeks later, KP.2 is now the cause of around 28% of infections, while the JN.1 variants have largely dropped in prevalence, the tracker shows.
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, recently spoke with Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the Food and Drug Administration, about the new vaccine formulations.
“It makes sense to target the KP.2 strain because it is becoming the predominant strain — it is surging in California and will spread across the country,” Siegel told Fox News Digital.
The KP.2 strain is “highly immunoevasive,” the doctor warned — which means that immunity from previous variants and subvariants don’t offer much protection.
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“On the other hand, the vaccine will cause a production of immune cells and antibodies that will continue to protect you against previous variants and subvariants,” Siegel added.
It is especially important for high-risk groups, those who have chronic illnesses, the elderly and anyone who comes in contact with them, according to the doctor.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, vaccine maker Novavax — which makes protein-based vaccines — said the company “just filed” its application for a JN.1 COVID vaccine.
“Novavax’s updated JN.1 COVID-19 vaccine is active against current circulating strains, including KP.2 and KP.3,” the company said in a press release.
“The submission is in line with guidance from the U.S. FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to target the JN.1 lineage this fall.”
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews/health.
Fox News Digital reached out to Pfizer and Moderna — both of which produce mRNA-based vaccines — requesting comment on their plans for fall formulations.
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