Diggiss warns: Obesity increases risk of sudden death; obesity and COVID-19 increase risk of dying from COVID-19
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — For more than two decades, Dr Charles Diggiss, president of Doctors Hospital Health System, has been a leader in the fight against obesity in The Bahamas.
Despite his retirement, he continues to raise awareness about the impact and implications of obesity.
“The issue of obesity is significant and growing for a whole number of reasons, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic,” said Diggiss during a recent interview to commemorate World Obesity Day on March 4.
“We are in an environment where our usual physical activity is curtailed due to the important mitigation strategies implemented for the COVID-19 pandemic — the necessity to remain out of social and physical contact, the inability to go to the gym and the lockdowns all stopping us from going out on the streets to jog or walk.”
He added: “You can imagine that the fear and the uncertainty associated with COVID-19 would increase and lead people to depressive and anxiety-induced activities like binge eating, emotional eating and making bad food choices — just packing in the calories.
“This is a setup to tilt the scale significantly upwards in terms of our calorie intake and fat storage.
“It’s no surprise, then, that with COVID-19 and the measures used to control the spread of this virus, there continues to be a concurrent exacerbation or an explosion of an obesity epidemic — even pandemic.”
Obesity was a national issue long before COVID-19, though.
Citing Ministry of Health studies from 2012, Diggiss noted that two-thirds of the adult population in The Bahamas was overweight. Of that overweight group, at least 40 percent were considered obese.
According to Diggiss, obesity will likely remain prevalent in The Bahamas as people continue to reduce calorie burn or physical activity while increasing their intake of excess and low-quality calories.
“The vast majority of us start with good intentions at Christmas to reduce our overall daily calorie intake, improve our quality of calories and add in exercise; however, by the middle of February, those good intentions are unfortunately lost,” he said.
“We buy expensive home fitness equipment and start off using it and by March it has clothes hanging all over it.
“This is not uncommon or unusual for us to see that the ability for us to sustain burn activity is difficult. Then you add to that, the proliferation of fast food, processed foods and high glycemic index foods, which keep pushing sugar into your circulation and pounding on the pancreas, resulting in the double-whammy of obesity and diabetes.”
At that point, obesity has further impacted internal organs and leads to other comorbidities like sleep disorders and sleep apnea, hypertension or high blood pressure, digestive disorders as well as mental stressors related to discomfort in social situations or coping with the stigma of obesity.
Diggiss said: “For the person who suffers obesity and usually suffers it for a long time, the motivation and drive to change behavior is going to come from the realization that their physical capacity is so reduced and they are at a significant risk of sudden death if they do not seek medical or surgical solutions.”
And in a time of COVID-19, that risk is ever-present.
Diggiss explained: “COVID-19 manifests its multi-system damage on the body by causing inflammation. Obesity compounds this damage since the stored fat cells similarly release mediators of inflammation: a dual threat for death in such obese patients who suffer severe/serious COVID-19 illness.”
The doctor urged “now is the time to get serious about your excess weight”, noting that an individual’s chances of morbidity increase as they approach or pass 250 pounds in weight.
He encouraged overweight individuals to contact Doctor’s Hospital for assessment and treatment.
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