Fat people even more likely to be affected by COVID than previously thought

[pocketem]

UK government scientists are urgently investigating whether people living with obesity may be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, after emerging data from intensive care units suggested a stronger link than previously thought.

New data from the UK’s Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, which has been presented to ministers and SAGE scientists, has found that the proportion of severely obese patients in ICUs is twice the proportion in the general population.

Ministers have become increasingly alarmed by data coming out of Britain’s intensive care units, with some members of the government suggesting obesity may end up being a factor in the UK’s higher death toll.

The UK is currently projected to have the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe. Around 1 in 4 UK adults are obese. In 2018, the WHO found that the UK had the third highest obesity rate in Europe, behind only Malta and Turkey.

More here:
www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/uk-scientists-coronavirus-obesity-link

It's ridiculously over sensitive to say posters are enjoying putting the boot in, and quite mean too.

You've posted here before right? On Mumsnet? It's full of judgmental people who are often not very clever. They love putting the boot in, it's what the website is made for. That was an accurate assessment of this post, from the wording in the OP onwards.

""Living with obesity?"
Is that what it's called now?"

That made me laugh as well. It sounds like it's your flatmate that's obese or something.

@Crazycrazylady thanks We can all only do what we can do. Good luck with your weight loss journey too!

Wanting someone else to solve all your problems is a modern disease.

Eat less, walk more. Free, easy even poor people or busy people can do it. But they don't want to - they want "support", money, something that does not require any effort. (Rich and poor). And they expect money for not working and free treatment for any health condition they have caused themselves. We have completely lost sight of any responsibility for ourselves. (It suits the government becasue they can easily manage and control a population like that). But we really should cop on.

anorexics should eat more, and those with psychosis should just ignore the voices and thise with depression should just cheer up right?

No. Those with anorexia and depression have to climb mountains to recover. They can only climb these mountains by making the effort. That effort can only ever come from within. From themselves.

They won't recover by making excuses and apportioning blame.

That was an accurate assessment of this post, from the wording in the OP onwards

The wording of the OP was "putting the boot in"? I don't think so.

Whilst the science might prove this is a contributing factor, you can't argue that populations such as Italy and Spain have a bad diet or an obesity problem, yet they were hit equally hard. I don't think it is that simple.

"Incidentally the survey also suggests that you're quite a bit less likely to end up in ICU if you're in the 'overweight' category (BMI 25-30) than any other, including 'healthy weight'. You never hear people quoting that bit, though!"

At what age though? It's already known that a bit of fat as a cushion can be good for old people, but I didn't think the same was true for younger people. Of course, people in their 20s are much, much less likely to end up in ICU anyway so I wonder how much of the stats come from younger people.

@DivGirl

No one said losing weight is easy, it takes effort. It is not expensive. If you're living off £1 chicken nuggets and potato smilies then just eat less of them, added bonus - that packet now lasts longer. Move more. Discipline, not motivation.

It's not as easy as that either. Nuggets, potato smilies and cheap convenience foods are full of salt, sugar and artificial additives - addictive substances. It's not so easy to just 'eat less' when the chemical reaction it's having inside you causes your brain to scream 'More! More! More!' Not so much a problem for the wealthy, with their avocados and strawberries, their brie and their couscous. It's not so easy as 'just eat apples then' either. If you live in a shit flat, in a shit area, with a shit job (if any job at all!) and few things to look forward to, what motivation is there? Maybe the nuggets and smilies are the only positive thing in your day.

"you can't argue that populations such as Italy and Spain have a bad diet or an obesity problem,"

No? It's pretty common for Italian and Spanish women to be very, very slim when young and single, but put on weight after marriage and children. They might still be less fat than us, but I don't think the average 60 yr old in Italy and Spain is that slim.

@Mikki - many people are exercising more during lockdown. More time, more motivation, wanting to get outside. Are you not feeling the same?

case featured on the news yesterday of a 17 year old who was extremely ill with it, happily recovering and reunited with her mum. Both, I'm afraid, very overweight.

and there goes the idea that it doesn't hit younger people.

brutally, being fat isn't healthy. Sorry. And yes, all of us including me need to watch the lockdown snacking!

I lost around 14 kg doing low carb... my BMI had crept up to around 28. Not dangerously overweight but well on the pudgey side. It wasn’t boring, difficult, bland or expensive... quite the opposite. I eat full fat yoghurt for breakfast with berries and maybe 1/4 apple. Omelette or bacon & egg for lunch. Occasionally a small jacket potato with mackerel/tuna mayo if following less strictly. Spag bol without the spag for dinner, or curry with cauliflower roasted with garam masala, pork chop/steak with a pile of buttery non starchy veg, shepherd’s pie with celeriac mash. Snack on eggs, cheese & deli meat and the odd square of 85% chocolate. Crucially, over the initial hump, I never feel hungry like you constantly feel on low cal diets... it’s all satiety inducing foods as it steadies your metabolic hormones like insulin, leptin and ghrelin.

Not to forget that eating is a way many people comfort themselves and handle their emotions. I believe it was Caitlin Moran who pointed out that comfort eating is the preferred mechanism for people with caring responsibilities: it doesn’t impair your cognitive abilities like alcohol or drugs. It doesn’t harm others like smoking does. Can you really expect comfort eaters to give up their crutch with this damned virus going round?

Wow that is. Wry stereotypical. I am Italian and can tell you that is a stereotype. Women of my parents generation are all very health conscious, have very good diets and lifestyles, which is why the love longer.

3/4 of those dying on ICU wards are men... can't cure that.

"Can you really expect comfort eaters to give up their crutch with this damned virus going round?"

No, it's not the ideal time to be on a diet. For me, wine and chocolate are the only pleasures at the moment and I'm completely inactive. Gone from an average of 13k steps a day to about 2k steps.

Thank you querlose

It’s finding the motivation that’s so so hard just now . I can’t see any good coming in my future anymore so why bother trying . But I know I have to - if I keep eating might as well give up entirely ... if I can lose weight then something positive might come .

The only v v good thing just now is because we can’t access shops if we don’t buy crap, can’t eat it . Forced to eat properly for the first time in years !

I’ve gone from toast and beans and cheese for breakfast to granola, fruit and yoghurt ... crackers, veg and Brie or something for lunch ... then a proper meal for tea eg chicken or fish and rice or potatoes ... no snacks and biscuits . No chips . No mayo.

I’m on anti depressants that cause greater retention of fats or something (mirtazapine) so it’s bloody hard but I have to do this .

I'm obese, I however have no underlying health conditions (checked for diabeties, high blood pressure etc) I carry my weight in my boobs and my thighs but us a small waist.

It seems that no one really understands the link between obesity and Covid yet. For many it seems it's because they had an underlying health condition caused by their weight. I'd be interested to see actually scientific studies on what people who were overweight died because of e.g blood pressure coupled with covid etc

Old people’s homes
Card home
Elderly walking around town

Almost without exception - you never see any of them even remotely seriously overweight. Wrinkly, slow, hunched over (obviously talking very elderly here!) but never overweight.

It’s not a coincidence. Those seriously overweight carked it from heart attacks, diabetes etc years if not decades ago. Same applies to corona and indeed a vast array of illnesses.

Some people need to put more effort into being healthy and less into justifying their current weight.

Yes of course there are single mothers of 6 special needs kids living in a shoe box surviving on pot noodles from the foodbank. But I’d hazard a guess that’s not the situation of most of the obese people on this thread shouting “ fat shaming “ and “ the government should do something “ and “ I can’t lose weight until every fast food place in the Uk is closed “.

You are ignoring the voices and lived experience of people on this thread and elsewhere on MN who ARE losing weight and getting healthier. No one said it was easy but it’s possible.

Realistically, we ALL need food. We all eat. There's a lack of sympathy, because some people do make the effort, every day, not to eat extra portions, make the effort to cook, make the extra effort to exercise too.

Some people accept that they eat food that is healthy but they don't necessarily enjoy, that not every meal is a "treat meal". Some people have a vague healthy food plan for the week, and some days are less appealing than others.

There's not much sympathy because not everyone chose the easy option. Imposing healthy meals and attitude on your children is not the easier option when you could feed them McDo and fish fingers.

@Travelban the index for Italy obesity figures are not as low as other countries and again will depend on region.
Mexico for example used to have a healthy BMI index until they adopted an American diet and not have a growing diabetic and heart disease epidemic.
Looking at the statistics from the 1970's onwards the trend is the world is getting fatter with an increase of associated disease that comes with that.

So COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect: the old (en masse - I've known 80 year olds who were much fitter than I am but that's because I don't exercise as much as I should so that fitness level is my own fault in my case); those with severe underlying conditions (e.g. diabetes, asthma, renal issues, immuno-compromised); BAME (surely no one can pretend that isn't an issue any more by muttering ridiculous things about more frontline workers being BAME? The photographs tell their own story!); the poor; and the obese.

So the question is, Public Health England, when this abates a little, and you've had millions and millions poured into your coffers, what are you going to do about helping the government address those factors? (I have my own opinion of Public Health England and their track record most of the time, it's one of the reasons I've sometimes had to retrieve my eyebrows from the ceiling and my jaw from the floor when they've been appearing alongside the government spokesperson of the day. And it always, always amuses me beyond amusement that their main offices are outside the wire at Porton Down.)

@Bahumbug - I've been banging on about the importance of vitamin D on here and among friends and family for weeks. I'm quite frustrated that the UK haven't published stats showing vitamin D levels in the blood of all patients admitted to hospital and confirmed cases in care homes. It's vital to assess and publish that now. There have been so many cases and deaths, they have a lot of data. I'm positive it will be the major factor in why some people become seriously ill and some die.