All the doctors dying are Asian - what’s going on?

[MMXVi]

And why is nobody asking questions about this?

I’m over-invested in the answer because my sister is a doctor very much on the frontline, and we’re of Indian ethnicity. I want her to be protected and if she’s facing some sort of additional genetic, behavioural or dietary risk I want that flagged up to her and other doctors PDQ, not to mention their patients of the same ethnicity.

If I see another glib and possibly slightly racist response about BAME people being poorer and therefore more prone to underlying conditions I’ll flip my lid totally by the way. There’s a world of difference between an Asian hospital consultant on £150k in stockbrokerville and someone Asian on the breadline in an overcrowded council flat, and it isn’t helpful to lump them together in this instance.

So far, I’ve seen a thread about Vitamin D3 deficiency making darker-skinned people more susceptible to respiratory illness. That makes sense to me, and I’ve already ordered some from Amazon for my sister as well as the rest of our family.

My mother (not medically qualified) has a touching belief in the anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic powers of turmeric so I’m making daal as we speak.

My dad (retired very senior doctor and the veteran of more than one pandemic) says probably multi-factorial, but as he’s currently recovering from cancer and therefore very high risk, I’m not going to make him elaborate.

Any other ideas and theories?

Anyone else concerned about why the press have neglected to mention this glaringly obvious information?

Would it be stupid to suggest that given humankind's general dentition, that we have evolved to eat meat, fish ,veg, and fruit, according to what's available in season. Time to set aside what is okay with the religious hierarchies. Eat fresh food, in season, surely.

As an indian I agree that our diet definitely puts us at higher risk of a lot of conditions, it’s mainly wanting meat with every meal and either eating very little veg or cooked to the point that there’s no nutrients left in it

"being vegetarian is used as shorthand for risk of vitamin d deficiency in lots of epidemiological studies ."

I was vegetarian for many years, and am still 90% vegetarian, particularly now being home all the time. It was never mentioned to me as a risk. Vitamin B12 was the only thing mentioned really and I believe there's vitamin D in quite a few foods that vegetarians eat.
I do take supplements, but that's because I know I don't get enough sun, not because I'm vegetarian.

On Sky News this evening they said 44% of doctors and 25% of nurses in the UK are BAME.

"Gwen - I mean the breakdown WITHIN BAME."

I think we do have the list of doctors who've died, with some info about their heritage, age and sex.

The only good natural dietary source of vitamin D is oily fish. Some foods are enriched such as some breakfast cereals, margarine, condensed milk and it seems some mushrooms too. No fruit, veg, pulses or natural cereals ( white, rice etc) contain vitamin D in any appreciable quantity. Dairy foods and eggs contain very small/ small amounts. Population deficiencies are more likely to be due to lack of exposure to sunlight though as people usually get most of their vitamin D from sunlight on skin.

Could it be to do with metabolism? I believe Asians have lower basal metabolic rates.

I think we do have the list of doctors who've died, with some info about their heritage, age and sex.

Could you provide a link to said info then?

Balmy, I said we have the info. I didn't say I have a link that I can find easily. I was under the impression the names of doctors were published. I don't have the inclination to look for them now.
If you disagree, you can always provide a link to prove me wrong.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/nhs-workers-died-coronavirus-frontline-victims/

I have been looking at all the photos as they come out and most who die are over weight - there is no two ways about it and it seems to be a huge thing with covid 19 probably because of weight of fat on the lungs even if we lie people on their fronts in the ward beds. I hope if we do nothing else in this crisis we can frighten everyone in the Uk enough to get their weights right down. Of course I acept lots of thin Chinese and Koreans have died so this is not the only issue but it does seem to play a part or perhaps not = perhaps the photos show a lot of over weight people because so many people are over weight buti t has no impact at all on covid 19. I might just be jumping to conclusions but if we look at Boris J - over weight had it badly and his fiance not fat but then again that could just be the age difference as he is old enough to be her father.

Either way as the NHS is likely to have much less money next year when we are in a depression nothing would help it more than people using the lock down to lose tons of weight.

"I have been looking at all the photos as they come out and most who die are over weight "

Doctors though?

The thing is, most people in the UK are overweight - about 60%.

"if we look at Boris J - over weight had it badly and his fiance not fat but then again that could just be the age difference as he is old enough to be her father."

And the fact that he's a man and she's a woman and a whole host of other possibilities.

Have a look for obesity as a factor in New York. It's not the only factor but it increases the risk of death dramatically. Which makes sense, sadly, if you think of how much harder your lungs have to work when you don't have a respiratory virus, let alone when you do.

I am wondering if the high death rate in BAME individuals in EU/USA is a function of western living or are we seeing high death rate in BAME counties of origin? So is the death rate of “Asians” in “Asia” especially high?

www.sciencealert.com/bats-flight-linked-to-immunity

I thought this was interesting in relation to metabolism. People with excess fat around their stomach tend to find their metabolism slows.

Have a look at Aseem Malhotra’s piece in the European Scientist journal (NHS consultant cardiologist)

www.europeanscientist.com/en/article-of-the-week/covid-19-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He’s saying there’s a strong correlation between metabolic disease and increased susceptibility to covid severity. It’s not just a case of being overweight/obese, a large majority of ostensibly slim people are metabolically unhealthy too... “TOFI” thin on the outside, fat inside... ie central abdominal obesity. Now is the time more than ever to abstain from ultra processed food like sugar, processed grain based carbs and seed oils, which make up 50% of the British diet, and stick to simple unprocessed ingredients like vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, dairy, avocados etc. Some ethnicities have a lower threshold for BMI as well, I remember a sm post of his last year where he spoke movingly about losing his beloved mother at a relatively young age to diet related illness.

I noticed this, a lot black, Filipino, and Asian.
Mayhe there's a link between the virus and genetics, maybe as they mostly have big families, and live overly populated in a house often, with many generations.
Who knows, it's very sad..

Good article Bah. We should be calling time on the glorification of excess and indulgence; the standard western diet is toxic.
Once upon a time a big flabby belly was something your old uncle had; now my 21 year old work colleague has one and so do some primary-aged kids in my DD’s ballet class

@Gutterton immigration into the west increases risk of obesity in most minority ethnic groups. It’s probably most marked in women especially from Africa. This digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/health-survey-for-england-2004-health-of-ethnic-minorities-headline-results gives good data, although it is somewhat out of date but I am not aware of any more recent similar datasets.

Abandoning traditional foods and instead consuming standard western products such as sugar and flour has been really detrimental to native Americans and Pacific Islanders. Type two diabetes and abdominal obesity was not a problem in those populations before exposure to refined carbohydrate-heavy Western diets.
I expect there’s a similar thing going on with other non European populations. The more recent the exposure, the more damaging.

Absolutely, the worst aspects of the western diet are adopted especially by second generation who want to fit in. McDonalds/KFC/Nando’s is affordable and also aspirational for many youngsters of BAME background. Just look at the number of chicken shops in poorer/ high immigrant population areas.

Bah, very good article. It certainily accords with my views. We somehow need to bring about a change whereby if in the UK you are over weight and eating processed foods you feel you are killing rather than saving the NHS. That sounds very cruel and I don't want people to be nasty to each other and I would like to lose a stone myself, but it would hugely help the NHS.

I agree Xenia. It is the elephant in the room indeed. You are accused of fat shaming if you speak the truth. But we owe it to friends and family to be honest-particularly to those who are BAME and even more susceptible to the damaging effects of being overweight.
I’ve been overweight in the past and we do a fitness test for work (a shuttle run). I can testify that losing two stone made a huge difference to my ability to do the test. At two stone heavier I really struggled.

I love Aseem Maholtra. He is brave.

I sorted my own health issues years ago through sorting my diet. In the way that GPS sneer but it took a while. I’m now studying nutrition - it’s taking me four years. It’s not dietetics which is the NHS/conventional medicine approach. It’s looking at the whole body; why someone has autoimmunity or high blood pressure or PMS or even eczema. Eczema is seen by dermatologists conventionally whereas we see it as a functional imbalance in the body relating to the immune system, the causes of which might be many. I’m not sure what I will do with the course but it has been utterly fascinating, evidence based and eye opening.