High-fat diets may increase one’s likelihood of suffering from sepsis, according to a study published in the journal BMC Physiology.

Sepsis is a condition that prevents the body from protecting itself against infections that travel through the bloodstream.

Over the course of three weeks, two groups of mice were fed either a western diet, which was high in saturated fat, or a control dietary regimen. As a result, the researchers found that the animals that consumed the high-fat diet had developed exacerbated inflammation.

These findings suggest that eating high amounts of cholesterol, saturated fat and sugars alters the inflammatory response to the bacterial infection.

Chantal Rivera, lead author the study, stated that these findings suggest that “this adverse outcome may be caused by consuming a high-fat diet, which predisposes the immune system to react more strongly to infection.” She added that targeting the location of the inflammatory response may serve as “a therapeutic approach to the medical management of sepsis may be especially beneficial in obese patients.”

Sepsis is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and from 1999 to 2005, approximately 1 million Americans died from the condition, according to U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health.