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Body mass index: a measure for longevity.
1Abteilung Nephrologie, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland. shiner@alumni.duke.edu
Medical Hypotheses
|March 29, 2002
Summary
Body mass index (BMI) may predict longevity, not just body fat. This is based on its scaling with body weight, similar to physiological processes across species.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Biometrics
- Longevity research
Background:
- Body mass index (BMI) is widely used to assess body fat and predict mortality/morbidity.
- The broad implications of BMI across various pathologies suggest it may represent more than just body fat.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if body mass index (BMI) serves as a measure of longevity.
- To explore the relationship between BMI and allometric scaling laws in human growth phases.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of allometric scaling laws for physiological time in mammalian species.
- Examination of how body mass index (BMI) scales with body weight during human growth (0-1 year and 5-17 years).
Main Results:
- Physiological time (heart rate, respiration, longevity) scales with body weight to the 1/4 power across mammalian species.
- Human body mass index (BMI) demonstrates this 1/4 power scaling with body weight during specific developmental periods.
Conclusions:
- Human growth phases exhibit scaling patterns consistent with interspecies physiological scaling.
- Body mass index (BMI) is postulated to be a measure of longevity, supported by allometric scaling principles.