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:
"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.
