Research Article - (2021) Volume 5, Issue 4
Hansika Bainsla*
Sharda University, India
Received Date: July 01, 2020; Accepted Date: April 23, 2021; Published Date: April 29, 2021
Citation: Bainsla H (2021) Nutrition: Why a Distant Priority. J Food Nutr Popul Health. Vol.5 No.4:52.
Our Health Care Systems are broken; there is an emergence to focus on nutrition worldwide, this research discusses and analyses the importance of nutrition in our health care systems. Poor nutrition is the main cause of chronic diseases. Health Systems are struggling to cope up. If we had focused on nutrition the mortality rates due to COVID-19 would’ve been different. Our Health care systems should focus on Nutrition to counter such pandemics in future. COVID-19 highlighted the necessity to eliminate chronic diseases such Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases as they put individuals at maximum risk Michael Pollan has stated in his new book The Sickness in Our Food Supply -” The problems the novel coronavirus has revealed are not limited to the way we produce and distribute food. They also show up on our plates, since the diet on offer at the end of the industrial food chain is linked to precisely the types of chronic disease that render us more vulnerable to Covid-19. The Outbreak of COVID-19 has given us a wide image of the actual condition of our healthcare systems, they are more of medications based systems or if we say in language of Dr James Dinic “Sick care Systems”. According to WHO people who are at highest risk due to Covid-19 are People above 60 years of age, People with underlying medical conditions including (Predominantly diet related diseases such as Diabetes, Obesity, Hypertension and Cardiovascular diseases) People with Chronic Diseases such as Diabetes, Obesity, Hypertension and Cardiovascular diseases have altered immune responses and can lead to severe illness if infected with Covid-19 Various studies are performed on severity of COVID- 19 due to underlying medical conditions Like in one study potential implications for novel coronavirus infections in people with diabetes type -2 was shown how Glucose metabolism plays a key role in the cytokine storm seen in influenza, and how Many of the people dying in the Covid-19 pandemic appear to be harmed more by their own immune system than by the virus itself. The infection can trigger a cytokine storm—a surge in cell-signalling proteins that prompt inflammation—that hits the lungs, attacking tissues and potentially resulting in organ failure and death. Another study was conducted on the severity of Covid-19 infection due to obesity as it can affect the ability of white blood cells to multiply, produce antibodies and prevent inflammation..
The most likely explanation for higher mortality relates to two factors. The first is a higher rate of comorbidities. We know that if you have cardiovascular disease, more than mild obesity, or diabetes, you’re more likely to get severe COVID-19 and potentially die from it. The second factor is the combination of age and population density.1 (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Statistics of countries with highest to lowest mortality rates given by our world data .org
1. In Italy according to a study by Country’s Health Officials more than 99% of coronavirus patients who died in Italy suffered from other, pre-existing health issues. Research by the National Institutes of Health released Tuesday evaluated 355 of the country’s fatalities and found that only three patients had no prior medical conditions. Nearly half the COVID-19 victims suffered from at least one of the following conditions: high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease out of which more than 75% reported high Blood pressure, while 35% had diabetes and 33% had heart disease.22. A report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, released in February 2020, similarly found a higher crude fatality ratio (CFR) among people with additional health conditions. While those who were otherwise healthy had a CFR of 1.4%, those with comorbid conditions had much higher rates, as follows ,Cardiovascular disease — 13.2%, Diabetes — 9.2%, High blood pressure — 8.4%, Chronic respiratory disease — 8%, Cancer — 7.6%.3
The u.s has the highest mortality rate, what was the reason?
These studies provide enough evidence that already present predominant diet related diseases is the cause of higher mortality in these countries.
The US has the highest mortality rate of COVID - 19 can be explained by studies of the National Center of Health Statistics stated by Dr Joseph Mercola in one of his articles.4U.S has approximately 45%, or 133 million, people suffer from at least one chronic disease. Among them, more than 1 in 10 have diabetes (and another 1 in 3 has prediabetes), 19 while 108 million adults have high blood pressure.20 Further, 71.6% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. The majority of persons hospitalized with COVID-19 have underlying medical conditions was stated in a report by Covid-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) The hospitalization rate among patients identified through COVID-NET during a certain 4-week period was 4.6 per 100,000 population. Rates were highest (13.8) among adults aged ≥65 years. Among 178 (12%) adult patients with data on underlying conditions as of March 30, 2020, 89.3% had one or more underlying conditions; the most common were hypertension (49.7%), obesity (48.3%), chronic lung disease (34.6%), diabetes mellitus (28.3%), and cardiovascular disease (27.8%).5Likewise, the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre released a report on 196 patients critically ill with COVID-19.16 Among them, 56 patients had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 30, which is classified as overweight, 58 had a BMI of 30 to 40, which indicates obesity, and 13 had a BMI of 40 or higher which is classified as severely obese. Overall, 71.7% of the critical patients were overweight, obese or severely obese.6
The Mortality Statistics In These Countries Given By Who Shows That 88 % And 89 % Of Total Deaths Per Year Respectively Are Caused Due To Non Communicable Diseases
In WHO statistics given for Mortality due to Non communicable diseases in the United states NCDs account for 88% of death out of which 37% deaths were due to obesity, 34% were due to physical inactivity, 10% from diabetes followed by 10% for salt and sodium intake and statistics for the United Kingdom gave that NCD account for 89% of all the deaths out of which 34% are caused by physical inactivity, 29% caused by obesity, 10 % caused by salt and sodium intake followed by 8% by diabetes78
We Have to Strengthen Nutrition in our Health care Systems
The excessive mortality of masses caused due to Covid-19 would’ve been much low if people were healthier. Our poor diets and unhealthy lifestyle is the main reason behind developing diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity which themselves Coverage, product information, and legislation. Another is to provide accurate, up-to-date education to help people to understand their personal roles, assume responsibility for their own wellness, and obtain adequate information to do so. COVID-19 gave us learning to fix our food systems which will also eliminate chronic diseases at same time.
