Being overweight and obese could pose a problem during COVID-19. Fat people are at a greater risk of getting more severely ill with COVID-19, a study suggests.
Although scientists have yet to learn about the specific mechanisms that explain this link, some likely factors, as reported in Hindustan Times (HT) are the following:
More strain due to fat
- There is a fat accumulation in vital organs like the heart due to obesity and leads to insulin resistance and high blood pressure. Obesity is very likely to trigger other health conditions such as diabetes, a weaker heart, and less well-functioning liver and kidneys.
- Excess fat also very often affects the respiratory system making a person breathless and less able to get oxygen into the blood and around the body. The inflammatory and immune functions may also be affected.
- “Obesity puts extra pressure and metabolic strain on almost every organ system of the body,” Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at Britain’s Oxford University was quoted as saying in HT. “So it’s perhaps not surprising that it also exacerbates the risk of Covid-19 complications.”
Fatty tissue and COVID-19
The adipose or fatty tissue has high levels of an enzyme called angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE2. This is used by the new coronavirus to enter cells.
People with higher levels of ACE2 in their blood and other tissues are likely to be more susceptible to COVID-19 infection, the report said.
Being fat and COVID-19, a ‘clash of two pandemics’
Francesco Rubino, an expert on obesity and chair of metabolic and bariatric surgery at King’s College London, calls the COVID-obesity link a “clash of two pandemics”, reported HT.
“The (coronavirus) pandemic really brings to the fore the need to tackle obesity more aggressively,” he said. “One lesson from the pandemic of Covid-19 is that not treating obesity is not an option,” the report quoted him as saying.
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