DEAR Dr. Fritz,
Good day! I just wonder why there are medical reports claiming that obesity increases the risk of severe Covid-19? Is this true?
I hope you can enlighten me. Thanks.
Holy Grail
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Dear Holy Grail,
While about 80 percent of cases of Covid-19 can be treated at home, obese people can have more severe infections.
The CDC placed obesity as a big risk for Covid for these patients who have suppressed immune system or chronic lung or kidney disease. CDC also changed the risk from a BMI of 40 to 30. This came after a British study of more than 17 million people which found that people living with severe obesity were about twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as those who were not obese, even after other things like age and sex were taken into account. The said study also found that risk increases with the degree of obesity. Thus, the bigger a person is, the higher is their risk of Covid-19 death.
What compounded the problem here is that when you are heavier, the harder it is for you to breathe, especially when you are sick.
The risk actually comes from the fact that fat makes and regulates hormones. And people who are obese make more of something called “complement” proteins, which can trigger out-of-control blood clotting, which is a problem in patients with severe Covid-19.
Obese people also have lower blood levels of adiponectin, which protects the lungs which predisposes them to more lung inflammation during an infection like Covid-19. They also have more ACE2 receptors on their cells, which are the doors the virus uses to infect cells and then make more copies of itself. And fat tissues have more ACE2 receptors than lung cells. Thus, more ACE2 may mean that there are more viruses in the body.
Good luck!
Dr. Fritz
(Dr. Fritz Legarde Espedilla is an aesthetic dermatologist and surgeon and a clinical sexologist. She is also trained in hypnotherapy and Medical Acupuncture. She has been in the broadcast media for more than a decade and has written a book based on her 15 year stint with her radio program, “Healthy is Sexy Secrets ni Dr. Fritz.” For your questions, you may e-mail them to dokfritz@yahoo.com. If you don’t wish your letter to be published, we regret that we cannot answer them. Thank you for your understanding.)