06 September 2007

Obesity and the Flu

Obesity and the Flu (Total Health, Volume 27, No. 6)

This is a lay article that the Inflammation class read. It's a perfect example of a person (Dr.) using scare tactics to get his point across, and overall losing the reader as well as the point he was trying to make.
The article talks about "silent inflammation" which, when you do a search on it, a term made up by Dr. Sears of The Zone fame (and for a low low price, you can buy his book on how to reduce silent inflammation following his diet).

Overall the article just uses big words to try to establish the link between obesity and the incidence of getting the flu. It's possible that obese people may be more at risk (due to increased inflammatory cytokines-read the other posts), but there are other reasons as well, that were never covered in this article...including access to flu shots, proper hygiene, etc.

It's very interesting to read articles that are out in the general literature. It helps you understand where a large portion of the country is getting misleading information!! That's why a site like Inflammablog is so important...let's get the real information out there!!
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3 comments:

DavidM495 said...

Misinformed lay persons read things like this all the time and run with them before validating anything. It is sad that true professionals have this kind of abusive power at their disposal because of the letters behind their names.

13 September, 2007 12:04
stephenb7630 said...

My brother is an obese person. He might not be more likely to get flu, but, he will certainly suffer more than a healthy person will. His weight has led to diabetes and sleep apnea. He can't walk more than a few feet before he is out of breath when he is "healthy." With the flu he has an increased risk of not breathing again when he goes to sleep and less energy to walk around. In other words, his lungs have enough problems as it is. I think it is sad that a doctor feels he has to scare people into losing weight. They have plenty of reasons to lose weight already.

11 October, 2007 15:13
JennyP7630 said...

So the book is really a diet book more than it is a book to "inhibit" silent inflammation. In a way, the author is using the general public's ignorance to his advantage (more $$$ in his bank!). It's scary to think that most of the general public will read an article and not question its sources and take what is said literally. I think asides from getting out the accurate information, we need to encourage people to question what it is that they read... As scientists, we are taught to read the articles that we do critically, but the average lay person does not do that.

14 November, 2007 16:50

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