Ten thousand steps and more. It’s a warning message. “We do not say it enough, the fact of moving more is a means of prevention against the Covid”, assures Mathieu Anheim, professor of neurology at Strasbourg University Hospital. From the first weeks of the Covid-19 epidemic in spring 2020, the finding was unanimous: obese (15% of the population) or overweight people represent a high, or even very high, proportion of Covid patients admitted to the hospital. resuscitation services. Work at Strasbourg University Hospital has shown that, during the first wave, 75% of patients undergoing intensive care had a body mass index (BMI), an indicator of corpulence calculated by the weight divided by the height squared, greater than 25 , with an average of 28, specifies Professor Anheim. We speak of overweight when the BMI is greater than 25, obesity being defined by a BMI greater than 30.
Since then, the data has been accumulating. After age, obesity is the main risk of severe form of Covid-19. The higher the BMI, the worse the results, point out several meta-analyzes listed in an article by the team of Antonis Manolis, from the University of Athens, published on November 3 in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice.
In addition, vaccines would be less effective in obese people, due to a lack of immunity not yet fully understood. A study, not yet published by a team at Stanford University, has shown that the virus can infect adipose tissue (the fatty mass), which would promote the inflammatory response, reports the New York Times, Wednesday 8 December. A phenomenon favoring the cytokine storm, the runaway immune system observed in severe forms of Covid.
Prevention that costs nothing
Despite this evidence, few messages are sent about the need to lose weight. “I don’t remember hearing anyone say, as a prevention of a severe form of Covid: ‘lose some weight, exercise, watch what you eat, take the stairs and not the elevator, take the bike and not the car, take a few steps… ””, notes Mathieu Anheim. Still, dropping the BMI below 25 significantly reduces the risk.
We also know that physical activity is beneficial for all pathologies caused by excess weight such as blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes, but also for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It has neuroprotective benefits, for sleep, for psychic activity. And it costs nothing, insists Professor Anheim, also in favor of compulsory vaccination in particular to avoid the closure of certain hospital services as currently.
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