GETTING IN SHAPE IS A LIFE MATTER OF DEATH
Up to a quarter of Covid victims who die have diabetes. It’s never been more clear that...
FOR too long, many people — doctors included — have chosen to look the other way when there is any mention of weight and the threat that it poses to our health. But there can be no denying now that obesity and type 2 diabetes are a double epidemic that is blighting Ireland, raising our risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and several different types of cancer — and now, we learn, also from Covid-19.
Being overweight doesn’t make you more likely to catch SARS CoV-2 (the strain of coronavirus that causes Covid-19), but mounting evidence suggests that it does significantly increase your chances of dying from it once infected.
Up to now, obesity has been an issue we’ve shied away from, partly
out of fear of causing offence. But today there is no shrinking from it.
Obesity is emerging as a clear risk factor for severe Covid-19 infection. A New York University study involving 4,103 Covid-19 patients found that while age was the single biggest risk factor in determining whether someone needed to be admitted to hospital, obesity came a close second — ahead of heart disease or lung disease.
MEANWHILE, a major analysis by the University of Oxford of the health records of 17.4 million people (the largest study of Covid-19 so far conducted worldwide) revealed that the most severely overweight people are three times more likely to die of Covid-19.
I now believe my own healthy BMI made a difference when I, too, developed dangerously low oxygen levels as a result of the virus.
It’s not only obesity that has been identified as a new major risk factor for dying from Covid-19 once infected with the virus.
Obesity is closely linked to having type 2 diabetes — and according to Diabetes Ireland, 854,165 adults over 40 here are at increased risk of developing (or have) type 2 diabetes. More alarmingly, there are a further 304,382 in the 30 – 39 year age group that are overweight and not taking the weekly 150 minutes recommended physical activity, leaving them at an increased risk of chronic ill-health. This means that there are 1,158,547 adults in Ireland that need to consider making changes to their daily behaviours in terms of eating healthily and being more active.
This is important from a Covid-19 perspective, as diabetics are disproportionately represented in the tragic number of deaths.
According to a recent sample analysis by the Department of Health of underlying conditions associated with 327 cases of people with the virus who required intensive care, 53 (16.2 per cent) had a body mass index of more than 40, which is defined as obese.
Ireland’s National Obesity
Management Clinical Programme states that 23% of Irish adults are obese, and as such they should be included in the ‘at risk’ groups.
The document states that people with severe obesity who become ill and require intensive care (5% of infections) present challenges in patient management which may lead to poorer outcomes — more bariatric hospital beds, more challenging intubations and ventilation.
Being overweight can make it mechanically harder to breathe, as a large belly makes it more difficult for the diaphragm and lungs to expand, reducing oxygen supply to vital organs. This helps explain why overweight people who contract Covid-19 are more likely to require extra help with breathing.
Obesity — or more precisely ‘central’ obesity (or a large tummy) — and type 2 diabetes also both affect the effectiveness of your immune system, making it less able to deal with new attacks. And as Good Health highlighted last week, obesity is known to trigger inflammation in the body. Overweight people have been shown to have higher levels of inflammatory messenger molecules called cytokines, which interfere with normal cell functions.
A major research review, published in 2016 by the American Society for Nutrition, concluded that obesity and the health problems associated with it — including high blood pressure, raised blood sugar levels and tummy fat — have a ‘substantial impact’ on the health of the immune system and defence against disease.
Furthermore, overweight people have a problem with low levels of vitamin D, which is important for building and regulating our immune systems. Being overweight appears to cause the deficiency, according to a major study involving 42,000 people published in the journal PLOS Medicine in 2013. Because vitamin D is fat-soluble and is stored in the fatty tissue, researchers believe it becomes dispersed in a greater volume of body fat, preventing it circulating effectively around the body.
And there’s no doubt that people carrying too much weight can be reluctant to shed their clothes outdoors — and so they miss out on the vitamin D our bodies naturally make when exposed to the sun’s rays. All of this makes weight of critical importance as we look for ways to
minimise our risks of succumbing to Covid-19. And I know from my own clinical experience just how scary infection with the new coronavirus can be. I have seen some of my patients with significant pneumonia, struggling to breathe and anxious; a few have been admitted to hospital, though thankfully none has died.
I also had my own brush with it — in the form of silent hypoxia, a dangerous condition where there is a severe drop in blood oxygen levels you’re unaware of because you’re not struggling to breathe.
As a 61-year-old man I was anxious about catching coronavirus, but I pride myself on being fit and healthy — I run four miles every other day — so I carried on working as normal and hoped I’d be safe. But about a month ago, I started to feel tired and heavylegged. I didn’t have a temperature, breathing difficulties, a cough or any other symptoms, though, so I just put it down to general anxiety about lockdown and the changes at work.
All the doctors in our practice have been issued with their own pulse oximeters — small devices that measure the oxygen in your blood and give an early warning of silent hypoxia.
A healthy reading is considered to be an oxygen saturation of 96 per cent or above, but mine was consistently reading lower — sometimes as low as 91 per cent.
But as I had no other symptoms, I decided the device must be faulty and ordered a new one. Then, one day, I fainted while out running. One minute I was feeling tired, and the next I was on the ground with a bleeding arm.
My first feeling was relief that no one witnessed my fall. But when I got home and measured my blood oxygen levels with my new oximeter, I registered another low reading (91 per cent) and it all made sense. Although a Covid-19 test came back negative, I’m certain I had coronavirus — and it took me three or four weeks to feel properly well again. My wife, Jen, had a similar experience. But most worrying was my 19-year-old-son’s bout of coronavirus, which — again — I nearly didn’t discover.
ASTUDENT home from college, Edward had been lying on the sofa for days on end. I’d started to give him grumpy pep talks about taking exercise when it occurred to me that he, like me, might also be ill. The oximeter revealed his blood oxygen levels were below 93 per cent and his pulse was terrifyingly high, at 150 beats per minute (normal is around 75 to 80). As he didn’t have any problems breathing, we decided he didn’t need to be hospitalised but we looked after him carefully at home.
His Covid-19 test came back positive; but, again, he had no other symptoms apart from extreme tiredness and low mood.
As a family, we’re all slim and fit — and I’m convinced this helped us to fight off Covid-19 without needing hospital treatment. But I remain in no doubt that in coronavirus we are dealing with a terrifying illness.
Yet today, a cure or a vaccine is still a It’s up to the individual to find an approach that suits them, but the bottom line is this: significant weight loss is perfectly possible and can transform your body’s vulnerability to serious illnesses — of which Covid-19 is only one.
That’s why I think that for all its restrictions, anxieties and worries, lockdown, as well as helping to reduce the tragic deaths from this awful disease, also offers a real opportunity to achieve a lasting benefit for our health. We now have the time and focus to kickstart our own healthy eating plans and exercise regimes. It’s about taking some positive action —perhaps with more exercise and looking hard at your diet. Whatever approach you adopt, it is essential to cut out highly processed food such as snack bars or biscuits. This sort of food adds calories, but with few nutrients.
When it comes to Covid-19, while there is much we cannot control, we can address vital lifestyle factors, such as weight — which could literally make a difference between life and death.