2009 wasn’t a very good year health-wise. Something happened in that year that struck fear in everyone’s hearts. It caught everyone unprepared and the next thing you know, it was the headline on every news channel and on the front page of every newspaper.

Influenza A (H1N1)

It was the time when the world was struck with a swine flu pandemic that cause worldwide-panic as the rate it spread was more than worrying.

It seemed like people were getting sick left and right and at that time there were no signs of it slowing down.

But fortunately it died down (literally) and since then we have learned many things from it. Many case studies and research were carried out and compiled and there from it a surprising discovery was uncovered.

Putting The FAT in FATAL

Overweight or obese patients who were showing H1N1 influenza symptoms were 3 TIMES more likely in ending up being FATAL. In other words, overweight and obese people has a very high chance of dying from this dreadful virus.

Looks like there’s another downside to add to the list of being obese. In addition to being prone to more illnesses compared to a guy with average weight, it looks like obese people are MORE susceptible to the H1N1 flu as well.

For the non-fatal cases, obese patients that required breathing aids (such as being on a medical ventilator) were shown to require to be on it for a longer periods of time. Plus, obese people also spend more time in intensive care.

As the study is still in its infancy, more time is needed to find the exact cause of WHY, to this problematic pattern.

But the point here is that its really happening more to obese people. However, there is a way that this can be avoided or decrease the chance of it from occurring….get your flu shots or vaccinated at least once a year.

(I bet you were expecting me to say “LOSE WEIGHT!” right?)

This Won’t Hurt….

Medical doctors deem the flu shot vaccination especially important for people who are obese. (Obese people (or people with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 and OVER) are especially encouraged to receive their yearly vaccination against influenza.)

There is another way that you can help boost your chances.

That is to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Because if you were to lead a healthier lifestyle, you won’t need to lose fat in the first place.

If you lead a sedentary lifestyle while stuffing yourselves with tons of junk-food and every other chemically produced/enhanced/added/mixed “food” you’re only making your body work harder to remove all the toxins in the body.

This only makes your body grow weaker in time and what happens when your immune system grows weak?

Yup, you will be open to attacks. Attacks and warfare on a microscopic level which may very well result in you losing. And like many wars, losing usually spells death.

Open Your Mind For A Change….Not Your Mouth

Being overweight just ain’t cute anymore. There’s no more “More Of Me To Love” or “Big Is Beautiful”. There are more serious consequences now in being overweight.

Unless your professional career is a sumo wrestler, there’s just no advantage to being overweight. The list of ailments that strike overweight and obese people seem to be growing every day. H1N1 just seems to be the latest on list.

So if you or anyone you know who is overweight, do something about it now before it’s too late.

Although the pandemic was declared officially passed in 2010 by WHO (World Health Organization), no one knows when and where such a pandemic or epidemic will strike again. A variant could come back be deadlier than ever before. Chances are that it will. Humans are constantly evolving, and so can micro-organisms.

The best that we can do is to prepare for it by leading a healthy lifestyle to have a higher chance to fight off this debilitating and infectious diseases or any other diseases for that matter.