The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that obesity is no longer a disease that harms people in the long run but has real-time adverse effects as well, Science Alert reported. According to new studies, the virus takes advantage of obesity in attacking the body of the COVID-19 patient.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported previously that 73% of nurses hospitalized suffer from obesity. Additionally, a recent study suggests that obesity can interfere with the effectiveness of a vaccine against COVID-19.
Obesity specialist and clinical physician Cate Varney, who was working on the frontlines of obesity in primary care at the University of Virginia Health System, wrote that she finally verified her theory that obesity could take more years off of one's life.
Obesity Faces Clear Danger From COVID-19
Doctors initially believed that obesity increased the risk of getting sicker from COVID-19, but it was only recently that they found obesity can also increase the risk of getting infected in the first place.
Obesity is just one of the many comorbidities that increase the risk of having severe COVID-19 cases, along with hypertension and diabetes. In the issue of the journal Obesity last April 1, its editors raised the alarm that obesity would most likely prove to be an independent risk factor of COVID-19.
Additionally, a study from September reported the higher rates of obese patients with COVID-19 needing intubation because they are in critical condition.
Lack of Understanding of Obesity
Obesity is known to cause more physical problems, such as sleep apnea and joint pain. But it also affects the mind and spirit due to the stigma and bias from medical professionals against the disease.
Doctors and researchers acknowledged the long-term effects of excess weight and obesity and recognized that it is associated with 236 medical diagnoses, which also includes 13 types of cancer. Therefore, obesity can decrease the lifespan of a person.
However, physicians are still unprepared for preventing and reversing obesity. In a recent study, only around 10% of medical school dean and curriculum experts said that their students are prepared of addressing obesity management.
Moreover, 50% of the medical schools said that obesity education was a low priority in which only 10 hours is spent on obesity education in the whole duration of the students' training in medical school.
Sometimes, even doctors do not know how or when to prevent medication for obese patients. An example of this is the eight FDA-approved weight loss medications that only 2% of eligible patients receive prescriptions from their doctors.
How Does Obesity Create More Severe Conditions?
Excess adipose layer stores fat and create a mechanical compression in obese patients that limits their ability to take in and breathe out air. Since breathing in obese patients take more work, it makes a restrictive lung disease and more severe cases that lead to hypoventilation syndrome.
The fat releases multiple hormones and molecules that could lead to a chronic state of inflammation in obese patients. Among these hormones and molecules is the cytokine, which in COVID-19 patients could lead to a cytokine storm.
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