Warning! Obesity is dangerous to COVID-19 patients

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 15 (ACN) Much has been said about the need to maintain healthy eating habits, due to the multiple health conditions derived from obesity: high blood pressure, diabetes and circulatory or orthopedic problems, among others.

Nutritionists recommend a balanced diet to prevent all kinds of ailments and, at this time, such advice takes on a new dimension through several studies about the effects of overweight on the evolution towards serious conditions of COVID-19 patients.

While research has provided no conclusive prove yet, many specialists claim to have observed a negative progression of the disease in young adults who, even without suffering from immunosuppressive conditions, do weigh a few pounds too many.

A little more than a year after SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the Chinese province of Wuhan, Spain, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Peru and other countries have brought to our attention that obesity can be a serious comorbidity deserving of special treatment.

In Cuba, Dr. Nelson Yero, a COVID-19 specialist at Salvador Allende Hospital, agrees. Contradictory as it may seem, he has seen in the center's intensive care wards that an obese subject’s condition becomes worse or critical in greater numbers than HIV or cancer patients. It could be, he told ACN, that their bodies have more fat than liquids and therefore they are more prone to dehydration as a result of common symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, diarrhea and difficult breathing.

Those who know hold that "fatness is not health", and in a complex epidemiological scenario, with thousands of questions that science is just beginning to clarify, paying attention to our body is paramount.

Without falling into banal perfectionism only intended to fit into the pattern of beauty globally imposed by the mass media, COVID-19 is perhaps the perfect excuse to give up lifestyles hitherto harmful and embrace new ones. Thousands of people in home confinement have chosen to exercise to reconnect with their personal selves, serving as an inspiration to many others.

May this wake-up call about the dangers of obesity to COVID-19 help us engage in more body-and-soul purifying actions and give ourselves a chance to "start over", leave behind damaging habits and learn to love ourselves. That is one of the best protective measures.