It is no longer a secret that obesity makes people more susceptible to complications from “Covid 19”, but researchers recently tried to find out whether these complications are caused by diseases related to obesity, or whether obesity is a danger in itself, even if it is not accompanied by health disorders such as diabetes and high blood pressure. blood pressure.

According to the New York Times, researchers from the prestigious American Stanford University revealed that the Corona virus infects fat and immune cells found in body fat.

And when this infection occurs, it leads to more harmful complications compared to the infection of a person who does not suffer from obesity with corona, which means that an obese person is more exposed to the risks of the virus even if he does not suffer from any disease related to obesity.

The researchers explained that a person who suffers from obesity is more likely to lose his life due to the virus, because he suffers from more severe complications when he develops “Covid 19” disease.

Researcher Philip Shearer from Southwest Texas Medical University expressed his surprise at the ability of the Corona virus to infect fat cells in the body, and added: “Everything that happens in fat does not remain trapped in fat, but rather affects neighboring tissues.”

This study has not been published definitively yet, but it was initially presented on the Internet, and if its findings are confirmed, medicine will understand why some young people develop severe symptoms as a result of Corona, knowing that they do not suffer from specific diseases, while the reason is most likely obesity. .

The findings may guide scientists in finding drugs that target body fat, said researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine Tracy McLaughlin and Catherine Bleach, the study’s lead authors.

Vishwa Deep Dixit, professor of comparative medicine and immunology at the American Yale University School of Medicine, explains that fat may be the point that the Corona virus exploits in order to survive the protection caused by the immune response, because it “hides in this place”, that is, in fat.

This study constitutes an important discovery in the United States, because the country’s population is among the most obese in the world, and most Americans suffer from excess weight.

And health data in the United States indicates that 42 percent of Americans suffer from obesity, while the country is among the most affected by the Corona epidemic.

And the previous belief in medicine was that body fat is inactive, that is, it is stored and excess only, but scientists now know that this tissue is physiologically active, and it also produces hormones and immune proteins that affect other cells, which leads to causing limited infections, even in If there is no infection.

Inflammation occurs when the human body responds to what it considers to be an intruder, such as an infection, and the response may sometimes be more harmful than a parasite.

Researcher McLaughlin explains that the greater the mass of fat in a person, the worse the response to inflammation in the body, especially when there is a lot of fat in the abdominal area, which surrounds the internal organs.