Obesity is a Problem that was Highlighted by COVID-19 in Mexico Volume 4 - Issue 1

Francisco Jiménez Trejo¹*, Félix Rodríguez Fierros², Luis A Herrera³ and Cristian Arriaga Canon⁴

• ¹National Institute of Pediatrics, Mexico
• ²aculty of Natural Sciences, Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico
• ³National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico
• ⁴National Cancer Institute, Mexico

Received:February 08, 2022;   Published:February 18, 2022

Corresponding author:Francisco Jiménez Trejo, National Institute of Pediatrics, Mexico City, Mexico

DOI: 10.32474/ADO.2022.04.000178

Abstract PDF

Obesity is a chronic disease that usually begins in childhoodadolescence due in part to being overweight, but something important is that it often continues until adult life and is usually related to other pathologies. Its origin can be multifactorial and at least in Mexico, we can consider it not only as a genetic inheritance but as an example of what we observe in our adult relatives who often repeat or frequently promote a special and inappropriate way of eating, considering that a good part of this problem acquires a more cultural component in our population. In other words, obesity is emerging as “we eat more than we can occupy burning calories daily”.

After almost two years in the Pandemic derived from the SARSCoV- 2 Virus in Mexico, it has been reported that the COVID-19 disease has generated the highest annual fatality rate in the population, the authorities argued that this high number of deaths was derived from non-communicable and chronic-degenerative diseases that patients carry under comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity or overweight, COPD, immunosuppression, dyslipidemia, among others. Mexico has been facing the Covid-19 pandemic with a part of the population that has a high prevalence of chronic diseases (75% of adults are overweight or obese, 49.2% have hypertension, and 14% have diabetes). It has been considered that a percentage of some of these diseases may present elements due to genetic inheritance, however, we consider that a bad culture of nutrition at an early age is provided by the consumption of snacks, sweets, soft drinks, junk food, meals with excess fat, processed foods or foods with low nutrient content (making us the most obese countries at any age indicated). In these decades, obesity has led to more premature deaths in the Mexican population, and that today, together with COVID-19, has been reflected in national statistics with excess. As in some other Latin countries, for Mexico, both complications (Obesity and COVID-19), are now part of the main health problems not only for people and children who come to concur with both situations, it is also a problem for the government and its Secretary of Health that must coordinate efforts to care for this type of patients, allocating money each year for Obesity and overweight care, in any case leaving other priorities for emerging diseases (i.e., cancer) unprotected [1-6].

Now all these problems increased by the Pandemic invite us to reconsider the urgent need to redouble efforts to generate better life prospects by acquiring a better conscience or being more emotionally intelligent talking about the repercussions that this type of non-nutritious food generates in our different populations, from children, adolescents, and adults, to gradually decrease the official figures. Aspects to re-educate people not only in Mexico but also in Latin America with better communication channels (use of the internet), broadcasting in the official times on radio, TV, and the press, as well as in the health sector’s clinics and private clinics with more force, will allow in the medium and long term to reduce premature deaths and will allow savings on the part of the government to allocate to other areas of health, but above all, if we manage to acquire a change of consciousness to reduce this national situation, we could at some point be an international example in the community of Latin American countries on how to better prepare to combat these prevailing health situations.

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