Obesity one of the reasons the UK death rate so high?

[Baileysforchristmas]

I know it’s the Daily fail and it’s not a brilliant article but I wonder if this one of the reasons our death rate is so high?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9282619/Obesity-link-UK-Covid-toll-Britains-status-sick-man-Europe-led-deaths.html

It's awful but if you look at the younger people in hospital they all tend to be very overweight.

It's well established that we are some of the fattest in Europe and Covid has been more deadly for those who are obese (hence including them in group 6). Not sure what is surprising for many.

I think what PP said about a perfect storm is about right. So we've got some of the highest obesity levels, apart from Malta and Turkey who presumably have better vitamin D levels.

We've got access to free healthcare but as a consequence it's limited to reactive treatment of symptoms so our overall health is worse.

Plus on top I think there'll be practicalities that will have hampered infection control measures such as carers having multiple jobs, greater use of wards in UK hospitals, lack of convalescent facilities meaning people were chucked straight into care homes to free up hospital beds.

Which makes it all the more ironic that this lockdown has meant people can’t exercise as usual and not end up more at risk of Covid ffs

On a lighter note (no pun intended), if this man's BMI (according to his medical records) has been included in our national statistics, no wonder we are showing as one of the most obese countries in Europe:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-56111209

I've taken my BMI from 51 to 35.6 since the first lockdown. I think it was a doctor talking about how difficult it is to intubate an obese patient and all the reasons why obesity could affect treatment on YouTube maybe.

My aim is to come out of this at BMI 25 and vaccinated.

It is also pretty rubbish that say asthmatics wont be vaxxed but how many people have we vaxxed 40+ bmi

@HSHorror. Because the aim is to vaccinate the people who are most at risk of dying, not who you think deserves it. Asthmatics aren't at anymore risk of dying than non asthmatics, where as people who are obese are dying.

Would you like to explain why you don't think people who are at a greater risk of dying should be vaccinated?

My sister who is 45 has just received her invitation and I can only assume it's due to her asthma as she isn't obese.

I think Brits are generally fairly good at following rules, far more so than Southern Europeans or the French (perhaps less so than Germany, Scandinavia etc), based on personal experience of living in various EU countries.
I am in Italy and where I am the rules were (and are) followed very closely by everyone I know.

It's really not down to the general public, it's down to the huge supermarket chains and manufacturers..... but hey profit before health

Tbf they wouldn't stock it if people didn't want it.

I expect, like a lot of things, for most people (who don't have specific mobility/cognitive challenges or are in poverty/from a very disadvantaged upbringing with no food education etc), healthy eating is do-able if you want it badly enough. Just like I could go running four times a week if I wanted to badly enough, which would be good for my muscle tone and cardiovascular health, but I just don't want to. Once you've trained your brain away from junk food it's not so bad but transitioning to healthy eating can feel like a boring slog.

Tbf they wouldn't stock it if people didn't want it.

True to an extent but sometimes people are encouraged to buy more than they need. If, say, biscuits are on a BOGOF are many people likely to leave the second packet on the shelf?

@Kakiweewee

I've taken my BMI from 51 to 35.6 since the first lockdown. I think it was a doctor talking about how difficult it is to intubate an obese patient and all the reasons why obesity could affect treatment on YouTube maybe.

My aim is to come out of this at BMI 25 and vaccinated.

Wow. Well done!!!

Bit Off topic @LApprentiSorcier but my GP had me at 4’3” so when I went to get weighed my bmi was huge so she stopped the pill (using my fertility as a punishment)said it was because of the risks - my bmi was only 23 and I was 5’5” but it took two years to work out what the problem was... so I wasn’t allowed the pill all that time.

She could have seen by looking at me there was no way my bmi could have been as large as her measurements suggested but she never checked just input in the computer and went based on that.

That's awful, alpenguin - even if your GP didn't notice your supposed short stature was way out, with a BMI of 23 it would have been clear that you were nowhere near obese!

Some experts say that because Sars-like viruses have circulated in the regions before, people in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South East Asia might already have some immunity to Covid which could explain their low death rates. Obesity does make Covid harder to treat, particularly as it's so difficult to move very obese patients and it is definitely a factor in our high death rate, but I suspect one of several.

You would have thought in the case of the Liverpool man (linked above), the computer system wouldn't have allowed 6cm in the 'height' field because it's not within a range of possible human heights even as an extreme. Similarly BMI of 28,000 should have flagged because it's not possible - even people at the extremes of obesity are only in the 100s.

@Kakiweewee

I've taken my BMI from 51 to 35.6 since the first lockdown. I think it was a doctor talking about how difficult it is to intubate an obese patient and all the reasons why obesity could affect treatment on YouTube maybe.

My aim is to come out of this at BMI 25 and vaccinated.

Just wanted to say well done to you Kakiweewee, that's an amazing achievement!

We've got the 36th highest obesity rate in the world en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate
But we have about the third highest death rate and some countries that have done well have a higher obesity rate than we do.
It's one factor but there has to be a lot more to it

But we have about the third highest death rate and some countries that have done well have a higher obesity rate than we do.

maybe younger population? we are far and old.

Do we have an older population than the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? All have a higher obesity rate

@Kakiweewee

I've taken my BMI from 51 to 35.6 since the first lockdown. I think it was a doctor talking about how difficult it is to intubate an obese patient and all the reasons why obesity could affect treatment on YouTube maybe.

My aim is to come out of this at BMI 25 and vaccinated.

How amazing :)

@CoffeeBerry

Do we have an older population than the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? All have a higher obesity rate

If you google the median age, you will see that it is a few years less for those countries (apart from Canada). so yes, broadly speaking we are older.

@lunapeace And right along side it our welfare system has become more like theirs over the past 30 years. Not a coincidence IMO. Its even called "welfare" over here now. Never used to be.

@lunapeace

I remember when it was just the Americans known as being an obese nation and over the past 30 years we've increasingly become more and more like them. The foods we have available to us instantly now compared to say in the 80s is insane. High sugar calorie overload and it's all very well having diet advice and healthy eating plans constantly publicised but with the level of temptation so readily available it's so so difficult for so many (wanting to comfort eat). Everything we hear is down to us, reduce our plastics (when all the shops sell is plastic packaging) and supermarkets full of crap. It's really not down to the general public, it's down to the huge supermarket chains and manufacturers..... but hey profit before health. Health before economy (not for all hey).

No one wants to hear this, but Japan has plenty of amazing, high-calorie things to eat. I actually gained weight when I lived there due to eating all the things.

But it’s culturally unacceptable to be fat. When I gained weight, all my Japanese friends commented about it, as did co-workers and such. It’s not seen as rude to joke about it. I was .... quite motivated to lose the weight 😂

No one mentioned my weight gain back home 🤔

How can EON customers on pre payment meters follow the rules when EON keep sending them from pillar to post for keys when they could send them out after their security hack which has barely been reported on because over 99% of the media are only interested in Covid.