Table of contents:
- Obesity is at risk of worsening the symptoms of COVID-19
- 1,024,298
- 831,330
- 28,855
- How does obesity cause the severity and complications of COVID-19 infection?
Read all articles about coronavirus (COVID-19) here.
In most patients, the severity of COVID-19 is influenced by age and the presence or absence of comorbidities that existed before being infected with the virus. A study found that obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for the most serious severity of COVID-19 infection.
Initially experts believed that obesity only increased the risk of worsening symptoms. But this latest analysis shows that obesity not only increases the risk of severity and death from COVID-19, but also increases a sufferer's risk of catching COVID-19.
Several recent studies provide other facts regarding the relationship between the severity of COVID-19 and obesity. One study revealed that the vaccine may not be effective in people with obesity. What is the severity and what are the precautions that can be done?
Obesity is at risk of worsening the symptoms of COVID-19
Previously, it has been known that obesity is a risk factor for various chronic diseases such as hypertension and heart disease. The existence of this chronic disease can make the impact of COVID-19 infection worse. But it turns out, obesity itself is likely to be an independent risk factor that increases the severity of the effects of COVID-19 on sufferers.
Two studies involving nearly 10,000 patients showed that COVID-19 patients who were obese had a higher risk of death on days 21 and 45 compared to patients with a normal body mass index.
Another study published in September noted that high rates of obesity are common in COVID-19 patients who are critical and require intubation (breathing apparatus directly to the lungs).
COVID-19 Outbreak updates Country: IndonesiaData
1,024,298
Confirmed831,330
Recovered28,855
DeathDistribution MapHow does obesity cause the severity and complications of COVID-19 infection?
Cate Varney, obesity specialist University of Virginia, in his writing on The Conversation explained that the impact of COVID-19 could be more severe in obese patients.
Obesity makes the body store a lot of excess adipose tissue (fat). This excess adipose tissue can create stress or mechanical compression in obese patients. This condition limits the patient's ability to fully inhale and exhale.
In more serious cases, obesity can lead to hypoventilation syndrome in which sufferers have too little oxygen in their blood.
In addition, new facts suggest an increase in ACE-2 occurs in adipose tissue rather than lung tissue. ACE-2 acts as a receptor or entrance for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 to enter and hijack body cells.
The more adipose tissue you have causes the sufferer to have more entrances which allow the virus to attack more cells and then damage them. This condition causes viral load (the number of viruses) SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19 is higher. This can make the infection worse and prolong the recovery process as needed.
These findings further reinforce the hypothesis that obesity plays an important role in the more serious COVID-19 infection.
Another thing that underlies the worsening of COVID-19 infection is that those who are overweight often experience inflammation in their bodies. This condition adds to the list of factors that cause worsening of inflammatory symptoms caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
