Does Obesity Make the Flu Vaccine Less Effective?
By Tara Weng, GalTime.com
Could your weight determine the effectiveness of the Flu vaccine? According to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity it just might. The researchers ultimately found that being overweight might impact a person's ability to fight off the virus, even with the aid of the vaccine.
Related:Is Obesity Contagious?
Researchers studied overweight, average weight and obese patients, who were given the combination flu vaccine during the 2009-2010 flu season.
They found that the obese patients studied had a four-fold decrease, or greater, in the antibodies that help fight the flu. The study also indicated that the white blood cells, determined to fight the virus, decreased as the participants' body mass index increased.
The study suggests that over time obese and overweight people cannot maintain antibody levels to the extent that their average weight counterparts can.
So what does this mean exactly? Melinda A. Beck, senior study author and professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, explains that scientists may need to create a different vaccine for patients who are obese. "We have stronger flu vaccines for elderly populations, because their immune response is not as robust," she says. "Maybe we need stronger vaccines for obese people as well."
There is some thought by physicians that getting more than one dose of the vaccine may help overweight patients, but there is no definitive evidence that this will work.
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