Fat Pig - Moi? Flab and Flu

As if people struggling with obesity did not have enough to worry about, they now face a new health hazard.
According to statistics from the US, overweight people appear more likely to die of swine flu.

In the US, 45 who died per cent were obese. As only 26 per cent of US adults are obese, this suggests that obesity doubles the risk.

Overfed, obese mice are nearly seven times as likely to die of ordinary flu as genetically identical lean mice.
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/137/....urcetype= HWCIT

We don't know if the same series of events happen in obese people with swine flu, Beck warns. But it is possible that, as in mice, obesity dampens our ability to fight flu by disrupting the immune response.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20....e-flu.html

David Fedson, a former flu researcher at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has long proposed using drugs that damp down inflammation, such as statins, fibrates and glitazones, as an additional way of cutting deaths from flu. These drugs are normally prescribed for obesity-related disorders such as high cholesterol and insulin insensitivity - figures on obesity and swine flu strengthen the case for stockpiling the drugs.

Well at least I am on Statins and Fibrates. The tummy needs some working on though - but the doctor has already told me that.