Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases. The most recent studies say it could lead to more serious complications even in the case of coronavirus. Are you "skinny" sure that you are not obese?
Obesity is one of the main risk factors for premature death and the onset of many diseases. From type 2 diabetes to cancers. According to the latest scientific research, obesity is a factor that makes health more fragile even towards Covid-19. Confirmation comes from the World Health Organization. The virus in obese people can cause more serious symptoms and complications. "In several recent studies, the role of obesity as an incident on the prognosis of infection has been confirmed," he comments Nicoletta Bocchino, nutritionist biologist. "According to scientific evidence for people under 60 years of age obesity would be a risk factor for the severity and need for hospitalization and intensive care," says the expert. "Patients suffering from obesity in fact suffer from a series of disorders that predispose them to viral infections especially respiratory infections, such as type 2 diabetes, low-grade chronic inflammation that causes an increase in the production of cytokines, circulating inflammatory molecules , hypertension . This implies a number of issues relevant to public health. "Just think that the percentage of obese people, that is, who have a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30, in Italy, but also in the rest of the world, is very high".
Who is obese?
When we talk about obesity we often imagine that a person suffering from it is a fat person with many extra pounds. In reality it is not so. Often even those who appear thin in their build can be metabolically obese. «Many people, although they do not have many excess pounds, can have a metabolism very similar to that of an obese person in the strict sense, that is, with a high fat mass and an accumulation of fat deposits in the liver. The causes can be genetic or linked to wrong lifestyles such as stress, poor physical activity associated with a high consumption of carbohydrates ", explains nutritionist Nicoletta Bocchino.
How to tell if you are obese
"The body mass index actually says little about the true composition of the body because it derives from the relationship between two numerical values: weight and height. The weight, however, is given by both the lean and the fat mass. This means that an apparently thin person can have a greater fat mass than a person who seems more robust, "says nutritionist Nicoletta Bocchino. Finally, there is another factor to consider: age. "As the years go by, the (lean) muscle mass decreases, the fat mass increases and the body composition changes. The increase in fat mass occurs mainly in the abdominal level, increasing visceral fat and the waist-hip ratio. In short, one is obese when body fat exceeds values between 10 and 15% of the weight for men and between 22 and 26% for women ".
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