Discover the link between obesity and more severe cases of Covid-19

Today, researchers participating in the European and International Conference on Obesity revealed that inflammation caused by the accumulation of fatty tissue in obese people, and associated with other diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, can play a role in patients' response to Covid-19.

European experts concluded that the inflammatory and immune responses associated with obesity may help explain the increased risk of more serious cases in patients with Covid-19, according to Agence France-Presse, today.

Researchers said that the renin-angiotensin and aldosterone system that regulates blood pressure, and contains the enzyme that the emerging corona virus attaches to, may also be linked to recording more severe cases of infection.

"We think that increased fat mass may contribute to an increase in the activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and inflammation in cases of obesity, which provides an important link between obesity, increasing the weak immune response to Covid-19 and recording worse cases in patients," said Guess Goossens of the Dutch University of Maastricht Medical Center.

He indicated that this may be partly responsible for more severe cases of the disease in elderly people with Covid-19.

"Since aging is associated with changes in body composition represented by reduced muscle mass and increased fat mass, we may be led to believe that this may contribute at least partly to the negative outcomes recorded in older individuals infected with SARS-Cove-2," Gossens added.