OBESITY AND THE FLU: IS THERE A CONNECTION?
“The global prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In 2014, the prevalence of adult obesity in the United States was 35.5%… In every region, adult obesity is increasing, and the pace of increase is accelerating.”CHERRY PICKED from the study being discussed today (as are other quotes from the study below)
“Viral shedding refers to the expulsion and release of virus offspring following successful reproduction during a host-cell infection. Once replication has been completed and the host cell is exhausted of all resources in making viral offspring, the viruses may begin to leave the cell by several methods. A person with a viral disease is contagious if they are shedding viruses. The rate at which an infected person sheds viruses over time is therefore of considerable interest.” Wikipedia’s definition of ‘Viral Shedding’
If you were to browse my dozens of posts on FLU & FLU VACCINES, you’d see that not so long ago I showed you how it can take as many as 200 people or more being vaccinated to prevent a single case of influenza (HERE). I’ve also shown you how the most prestigious reviewer of biomedical research data (Cochrane) has repeatedly shown how absurdly ineffective the flu vaccine is for almost any group you care to mention (children, adults, elderly, healthcare workers, etc, etc — HERE).
And on top of all of it, an increasing number of MD’s are speaking out about the shot, and calling it out for the scam it is (HERE). And now this. Last week’s issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases (Obesity Increases the Duration of Influenza A Virus Shedding in Adults) had this to say concerning the relationship between obesity and influenza…..
“While previous studies identified obesity as a risk factor for severe influenza outcomes, we showed that obesity also affects less severe outcomes by significantly increasing the duration of influenza virus shedding in adults. Further, we found that, even in asymptomatic or mildly ill individuals, obese adults shed influenza virus for a longer duration than nonobese adults. This has important implications for influenza transmission. Symptomatic obese adults were shown to shed influenza virus 42% longer than non-obese adults.
Even among pauci-symptomatic adults [those presenting with mild symptoms of the flu] and asymptomatic adults [those presenting with no symptoms], obesity increased the influenza A shedding duration by 104%. These findings suggest that obesity may play an important role in influenza transmission.”
Why is this a big deal (no pun intended)? Because if you throw in the 8% of our population who are medically obese, normal weight (MONW) — those whose weight appears “normal” via a height / weight chart but who have high bodyfat percentage and blood labs that show the tell tale characteristics of OBESITY — almost 4 of 5 Americans (80% of our population) is either overweight or obese, with nearly 40% currently falling into the category of outright obesity. And as I’ve shown you before, obesity is is one of the myriad of diseases that are considered “INFLAMMATORY” — driven by inflammation. Not surprisingly, the authors went on to say that…..
“Obesity leads to altered immune function and chronic inflammation, which increases with age, in addition to mechanical difficulties in breathing and increased oxygen requirements; these are plausible mechanisms by which obesity could alter influenza risk, severity, and transmission potential. We hypothesize that this immune dysfunction could lead to a longer duration of influenza virus shedding, possibly increasing the transmission potential of infected individuals. Obesity is associated with severe influenza outcomes…..”
In the 1,783 people studied, obese adults with two or more symptoms of influenza shed the virus for an average of 5.2 days, as opposed to 3.7 days for the non-obese. If this study pertains to you, what are you going to do about it? Rather than simply try and “LOSE WEIGHT,” via fad diets and “MORE EXERCISE,” let’s get to the root of the situation and deal with the underlying causes.
Firstly, you must control your BLOOD SUGAR. Almost every disease you can name (even many of the so-called “GENETIC DISEASES“) is related to blood sugar. On top of this, sugar is what’s feeding infections in the first place, viral or bacterial, influenza virus included (HERE). To see my post on creating a plan to get healthy, lean, and stay that way for the rest of your life, HERE is the portal to enter. And if you appreciate the free information you find on my site, be sure to like, share, or follow on FACEBOOK as it’s a great way to reach the people you love and care about most.
