Obesity and H1N1 flu - why is it worse for them?

salinqmind · December 3, 2009, 4:08pm

Obese people, that is. myhealthwellnessonline.net/archives/110#more-110

Is it because obesity makes it harder for them to breathe?

(I’m just curious, not fat. Yet.)

KarlGauss · December 3, 2009, 7:09pm

Although obese people get "sicker’ with it, their mortality rate from H1N1 is no different than the non-obese (reference).

As to why they get sicker, note that obesity is generally associated with being sicker from serious illness in the ICU (eg. reference).

And, as you said, obesity does make it harder to breath. It takes more work to push the guts out of the way to inflate lungs downward when those guts are heavier than normal, and more work, too, to inflate the lungs generally since the chest wall is also obese and thus weighs more, etc. Beyond this, there are differences in the brains of obese people that sometimes make them breath inappropriately slowly, or even to stop breathing (apnea). These changes are in addition to the tendency to stop or slow breathing due to excess weight and pressure on the chest and lungs.

Dr.Woo · December 5, 2009, 2:29am

KarlGauss:

Although obese people get "sicker’ with it, their mortality rate from H1N1 is no different than the non-obese (reference).

As to why they get sicker, note that obesity is generally associated with being sicker from serious illness in the ICU (eg. reference).

And, as you said, obesity does make it harder to breath. It takes more work to push the guts out of the way to inflate lungs downward when those guts are heavier than normal, and more work, too, to inflate the lungs generally since the chest wall is also obese and thus weighs more, etc. Beyond this, there are differences in the brains of obese people that sometimes make them breath inappropriately slowly, or even to stop breathing (apnea). These changes are in addition to the tendency to stop or slow breathing due to excess weight and pressure on the chest and lungs.

Wow. Seems like this could also be a problem for the obese with COPD or other chronic lung problems. Do we why there are differences in the brain?