By September 2020, only around 30 million international people had tested positive for COVID-19 and their global death rate was 3. 7%. The greatest impediment to controlling the spread of this virus has been the fact that the diversity of symptoms is unpredictable, ranging from minimal to severe respiratory compromise with diffuse lung damage and death. While COVID-19 crossed China and Italy for the first time, scientists focused on things like old age, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, exposing express populations to greater threat. , a threat that has proven catastrophic for the United States: obesity.
The United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. More than 40% of American adults are obese, meaning they have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. Nearly 10% of American adults are thought to be obese. obesity, which is explained as having a BMI of 40 or more. For example, a user who is 5’4″ tall and weighs 235 pounds has a BMI of 40. For reference, adults generally have a BMI between 18 and 24. 9. considered obese with a BMI between 25 and 29. 9.
While obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, this is not necessarily true for the rest of the evolved world. Only 20% of the Italian population is obese; 24 in line with the percentage of the Spanish population; and only 6% of China’s population is obese. Worse, recent studies have shown that the trend of the American trend is getting worse. Obesity rates between 1999 and 2018 show that the proportion of young people over the age of 6 to 11 known as obese is higher than 15% to 19%. The number of obese adolescents over the age of 12 to 19 increased from 16% to 21%. And the same trend applies to other people in all age groups who are severely obese.
In the face of a “pandemic” we were already prepared for COVID-19.
A report published through Public Health England a few months ago concluded that obesity or obesity increases the threat of covid-19 headaches and death. Last spring, he gave the impression that an unusually high proportion of DKOVID-19’s dying physical care staff gave the impression of being obese in the photos, however, no one could have predicted what higher obesity would look like. Since then, nearly three hundred clinical articles have reported a transparent arrangement between severe obesity and increased morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19.
One of the largest studies published last month in Annals of Internal Medicine, where researchers tested records of more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California system, the number one endpoint of death within 3 weeks of diagnosis. For others with a BMI greater than four0, the death threat from COVID-19 is 2. 5 times higher and if your BMI is greater than four5, the threat four times higher.
These statistics deserve to be alarming; however, additional discoveries are frightening.
For patients under the age of 60, the death threat increases exponentially with increased BMI. Compared to their normal weight counterparts, obese patients with bMI between 35 and 39. 9 are 3 times more likely to die. people with excessive obesity, explained as a BMI of 40 or more, the death threat from COVID-19 is 17 times higher.
As a threat factor for singles, obesity independently eclipses the mortality threat of other similar situations, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or a history of attack on the center. Despite the fact that many other obese people identify as “healthy,” all bets are open when it comes to fighting COVID-19.
Why are obese patients vulnerable to worse outcomes?We don’t know yet.
Obesity can cause an exaggerated immune reaction to the virus, which can lead to increased damage to lung tissue. Abdominal obesity makes it harder to breathe while reducing mendacity. And while limited breathing can lead to sleep apnea and even metabolic dysfunction, the fact that the threat of mortality is more than doubled makes it unlikely that any of these mechanisms can justify the difference in results.
For some time I suspected that the elusive ace 2 receptor (receptor 2 of the angiotensin conversion enzyme), the mooring protein needed for SARS-CoV-2 to enter the mobile and produce viral copies, is the culprit that determines the severity of the disease. Research shows that mobile fats have much higher levels of ACE 2 receptors than those found in the lungs. Scientifically, it makes sense that the more receptors that are added to the virus, the more viral copies occur and a higher viral load can also worsen. the severity of the disease. For example, young people may be in a higher situation because older adults have many more recipient sites in their bodies than young people under the age of 10.
But what’s genuine is how to fight america’s obesity epidemic before it’s too late.
In fact, our country faces two pandemics simultaneously: obesity and COVID-19. Although obesity is obviously identified to have a significant negative effect on fitness, popular prevention methods have proven ineffective. Living in the United States has become synonymous with a sedentary lifestyle. Overeating is deeply rooted in our social fabric. Countless young people in my practice have gained weight, I call it “Coronavirus 15”, since last March. Imagine what those numbers will see for American adults until the end of 2020. There’s no point in surviving one pandemic if we succumb to another. Healthy food and exercise will have to become as important a priority as endless studies and the billions spent finding a cure or miracle vaccine for COVID-19.
Dr. Niran Al-Agba is a pediatrician in Silverdale and writes a column for Kitsap Sun. Contact her at niranalagba@gmail. com.