70% of COVID-19 Cases are Overweight, Says Study

How at risk are obese and overweight people from the coronavirus? — (Photo : Photo by RitaE from Pixabay)

Researchers from the UK have indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic and the health problems due to obesity extend over each other. Mainly, more than 70% of COVID-19 cases are made of overweight and obese patients. That's why they're calling out the food industry to help shape the population out of their poor eating habits.

The Link Between Being Overweight and COVID-19

This is the stance posted by the researchers from the Queen Mary University of London in an editorial titled 'Obesity and COVID-19: the role of the food industry' published by The British Medical Journal. The article, which is co-authored by Graham A. MacGregor, MB BChir, Monique Tan, Ph.D., and Feng J. He, Ph.D. states that being obese is an independent risk factor for extreme affliction and expiration from COVID-19.

Their data also gathered that an increased risk hit 44% for those who had trouble being obese or overweight, according to New Food Magazine. It's important to realize that those in the most obese category also increased the chances of them dying from COVID-19.

"Unlike most other risk factors identified for COVID-19 such as age, sex, and ethnicity - obesity is a modifiable risk factor," Graham elucidated.

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They've also included that obesity is also a risk factor for the following severe illnesses like:

Cancer
Stroke
High Blood Pressure
Type 2 Diabetes
Heart Disease

Macgregor and his colleagues' study indicates that in the UK, there is an accompanying link between obese or overweight individuals as they made up 78% of the verified cases in the hospitals. When it came to deaths, the article mentioned that there was a 62% of expirations of overweight or obese individuals due to COVID-19.

What Could Account For the Association Between Obese and Overweight and Getting Infected With the Coronavirus

Obese and overweight individuals have a higher number of Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2), SARS-CoV-2 capitalizes on this enzyme as an entry route.

Excess weight is a factor that will diminish an individual's immune response, which triggers a weak host defense and a considerable amount for a cytokine storm.

Fat people have poor respiratory functions due to a decrease in lung volume.

Researchers Calling For a Proper Action

Due to these findings, they have made a call for major food industries in the world to stop advertising a continuing unhealthy lifestyle of eating and drinking processed food and beverages, as reported by Express and Star.

For them, this epidemic is the right time for the government to seize the opportunity to eradicate poor eating habits. This could only be maintained if there will be proper enforcement of banning unhealthy foods in television, print media, and other forms of advertising.

As a result, there will be a bigger chance to formulate again products that will contain less salt, sugar, and saturated fat. Thus, reducing deaths from COVID-19 and many other chronic illnesses.

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