{"id":290947,"date":"2021-05-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=290947"},"modified":"2021-05-25T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T07:00:00","slug":"obesity-can-save-lives-in-case-of-severe-bacterial-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/obesity-can-save-lives-in-case-of-severe-bacterial-infection\/","title":{"rendered":"Obesity can save lives in case of severe bacterial infection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 are considered obese and particularly at risk for a wide range of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, certain types of cancer, premature joint wear, and more. However, researchers at the Swedish institutions Sahlgrenska Academy<\/a>, the University of Gothenburg<\/a> and Skaraborg Hospital in Sk\u00f6vde have proven in a study that being overweight can actually save lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this study, the scientists observed all 2,196 adult patients admitted to Skaraborg Hospital in Sk\u00f6vde for a suspected serious bacterial infection over a period of nine months. This showed that those with an elevated BMI also had significantly higher survival rates than normal-weight patients, both 28 days and one year after their hospitalization. For example, 26 percent of people in the normal-weight group had died within a year. By contrast, in the higher BMI groups, the figure was only between nine and 17 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Obesity survival paradox”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Previous, limited studies had already shown this “obesity-survival paradox,” which the new study was now able to confirm. “In the context of most other diseases, overweight and obesity are disadvantageous,” says the study’s primary author, \u00c5sa Alsi\u00f6, Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at Sahlgrenska Academy and Senior Consultant in Infectious Diseases in Sk\u00f6vde. “This applies to several types of cancer, cardiovascular disease and, in particular, COVID-19, in which a higher BMI is associated with higher mortality. Paradoxically, it\u2019s the other way round here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is uncertain, however, how obesity may be beneficial for patients with a bacterial infection, she said. It’s unclear whether it’s related to functions in the immune system or how they are regulated. “More knowledge is needed about how being overweight affects the immune system. One patient category it could be studied in is individuals undergoing bariatric surgery. (stomach reduction, ed.).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BMI as a key variable<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Gunnar Jacobsson of the Sahlgrenska Academy and chief infectious disease physician at Skaraborg Hospital in Sk\u00f6vde hopes the findings may also help improve treatment of obese people with COVID-19. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted vulnerable patient groups, and overweight people have been hit hard. Maybe experience and handling of care for patients with severe bacterial infections can be used to improve the prognosis of COVID-19 and overweight,” said the study’s lead author. “Globally, obesity is increasing at an alarming rate. More knowledge is needed to shed light on how body weight affects the body\u2019s defenses against infection so that treatment can be individualized.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more population-level studies are needed to answer these questions, he said. This is the only way to examine how BMI affects treatment outcomes for various infectious diseases and what links might exist with immune system regulation, the researchers believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the study, “Impact of obesity on outcome of severe bacterial infections<\/a>,” conducted before the coronavirus pandemic, were published in the journal PLOS ONE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also of interest:
<\/strong>Is the happiness hormone dopamine to blame for being overweight?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is a biomarker in the blood to blame for severe cases of COVID-19?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 are considered obese and particularly at risk for a wide range of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, certain types of cancer, premature joint wear, and more. However, researchers at the Swedish institutions Sahlgrenska Academy, the University of Gothenburg and Skaraborg Hospital in Sk\u00f6vde […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1660,"featured_media":290929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[30066,30131,61617,53789,11183,61622],"location":[54353],"article_type":[],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-290947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-bacteria","tag-bmi","tag-body-mass-index","tag-obesity","tag-sweden","tag-university-of-gothenburg-2","location-sweden"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"A new study from the Swedish Research Council has shown that a higher BMI may result in a higher survival rate in the presence of a severe bacterial infection.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Petra Wiesmayer","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/petra-wiesmayer\/"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["bacteria<\/a>","BMI<\/a>","Body-Ma\u00df-Index<\/a>","obesity<\/a>","Sweden<\/a>","University of Gothenburg<\/a>"],"unlinked":["bacteria<\/span>","BMI<\/span>","Body-Ma\u00df-Index<\/span>","obesity<\/span>","Sweden<\/span>","University of Gothenburg<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 5 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 25, 2021","modified":"Updated on May 25, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 25, 2021 9:00 am","modified":"Updated on May 25, 2021 9:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=290947"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=290947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}