Hello everyone Floyd Meyer here I am a Physician Assistant with a Master’s in public health, a degree in molecular biology, and I am currently working in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
I hope that you have enjoyed my Become More Resilient series, and have learned specific steps that you can take to remain well, recover, and even thrive in the face of adversity.
Today I want to take the 10,000 foot overview on why this pandemic is so bad for Americans, and my final thoughts on what it means to be resilient.
In recent weeks, a vast amount of data has been released demonstrating why the United States has been impacted so hard by this virus. According to the most up to date information from the CDC, 73.6% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese.
And just recently the CDC added being overweight to the list of conditions that have been shown to put people into a high risk category for severe illness from COVID.
This is because a new study was published which looked at nearly 150,000 adults that were hospitalized with COVID showing dramatic increases in the risk of severe disease with higher BMI or body mass index. They also unsurprisingly showed that those people at the healthy BMI range had the lowest risk of adverse outcomes. In this study, just under 80% of those people that were hospitalized were overweight or obese. The findings demonstrate a dose response relationship between BMI and risk of severe disease. (Kompaniyets et al., 2021)
If you are curious what your BMI is you can check here on the CDC website.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.html
This pandemic has shown us just how important it is to be resilient.
People have a very difficult time maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding bad habits like smoking when the negative outcome of inaction is a heart attack in 20 to 40 years, but now being overweight or obese, having diabetes, smoking cigarettes, etc., has a very real and acute effect in making them more susceptible to COVID, TODAY.
But this idea of resilience goes way beyond this specific pandemic. Being more resilient will allow you to weather all of life’s obstacles whether they be physical or psychological. We never know when difficulty will arise, but we can be sure it will happen eventually, and because of this we need to remain resilient to handle these situations.
Being resilient doesn’t happen overnight. This is not about the newest exercise or superfood.
Being resilient takes consistent action day after day.
Consistency is the foundation that resilience stands on.
We need to be resilient not just to overcome our own adversities, but for our families, our communities, and our country. Remember community resilience starts with you. We need to be that resilient person that others can rely on during difficult times.
As the famous German philosopher stated, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
I hope that you will join me in becoming more resilient. Not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of our families, our communities, our country, and the world.
Make sure you check out the rest of the videos in the series for strategies to improve your own resilience.
If this resonated with you please share with your friends and family and subscribe and follow for more of this content. The time for action is now. Again this is Floyd Meyer. Have a great day!
Certain medical conditions and risk for severe covid-19 illness. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical conditions.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019ncov%2Fneed-extra-precautions%2Fgroups-at-higher-risk.html
Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 1960–1962 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020.
Kompaniyets L, Goodman AB, Belay B, et al. Body Mass Index and Risk for COVID-19–Related Hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit Admission, Invasive Mechanical Ventilation, and Death United States, March–December 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:355–361. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7010e4
Catalyst Impacts 