Obesity: The Biggest Risk for Death from Covid-19
The Covid-19 global pandemic has finally exposed the fact that obesity kills. The truth is, in the United States, obesity is now the most prevalent threat to your health. It’s not diabetes, heart disease or even cancer. Obesity affects 42% of all Americans and it’s a killer.
On July 24th Public Health England reported that being overweight or obese “puts you at greater risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19.” In fact, having a body mass index (BMI) of 30-35 puts you at 40% higher risk of DEATH from Covid-19. That’s just 45 pounds of excess body fat if you’re 5’4” tall! And for a person with a BMI of 40, your risk of dying from Covid-19 goes up by 90%!!
The truth about your weight and the risk of death from Covid-19 is so well know that it was recently reported on Real Time with Bill Maher. https://youtu.be/vDaQOy7ML38
This is not new information to doctors. We have known for a long time that obesity and metabolic syndrome affects your immune system. A report from January 2016 in the journal Advances in Nutrition warned that the “increased risk of both metabolic and infectious diseases” caused by obesity was devastating. And if you are obese and hoping that a vaccine will solve your problem, think again. Vaccines are less effective in obese adults, and Covid-19 will likely be the same. When asked if there will be a Covid-19 vaccine tailored to work better in obese people, Dr. Shaikh, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, answered “No way.” In fact, when asked if the vaccines being developed will work in people that are obese the answer was “Our prediction is no.”
Since coronavirus epidemics will likely be part of our lives for years to come, doing something now to fix your problem with excess weight might be the most important thing you can do.