From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Being
obese is bad for people’s health. And a study indicates that being
obese is bad for people with HIV in a way that’s related to their
disease.
Nancy Crum-Cianflone of the Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences saw this in 22 years of data on more
than 1,100 people. She examined the effect of obesity after therapy
became available to fight the AIDS virus on their immune cells –
notably their CD4 cells:
[Nancy Crum-Cianflone speaks] "People
who had excessive weights had lower CD4 counts than someone who had an
appropriate weight."
Crum-Cianflone says it may be another reason to control weight.
The
study presented at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of
America was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.