Unmasking COVID-19
A few weeks ago, I was speaking to someone much older than me. I was talking about COVID-19 and how crazy the world has become. Trying to be positive, I said, “the world seems crazy right now, but I am sure you have seen times like these within your life.” Without even letting me finish, she cut me off and said, “I have never seen anything like this. It seems like the world has completely lost its mind.”
The last six months have been a time of great fear and uncertainty for many people. If you watch the news, there are new stories every day of the potential ways in which COVID-19 could devastate our entire lives. Experts are talking about how COVID-19 could destroy our lives for years to come. Maybe you have lost someone or even suffer serious sickness as a result of COVID-19. Whatever your situation, let's talk about some of the misconceptions about COVID-19 and what you can do to keep your family safe.
How Dangerous is COVID-19?
COVID-19 is considered a novel virus, which means it is part of a family of viruses that are not very common for people to catch. Most of the time, when a bug goes around, our body is able to fight it off very easily. This is because it recognises the virus as being similar to another virus that it has dealt with in the past and creates more antibodies to control the virus easily. Most of our bodies have never dealt with a coronavirus before. Back in March, the fear was that a high percentage of people who caught COVID-19 would die. However, that turned out not to be true. Roughly 80% have no symptoms, and of the remaining 20%, only 5% have a severe case. It turns out COVID-19 has a fatality rate similar to or even less than the common flu, far less than was predicted. Initially, it was projected to be up to 10% or more of COVID-19 cases ending in death. In reality, it has turned out to be less than 1% similar to that of the common cold. COVID-19 is more dangerous than the common cold not because of the fatality rate but because of how easy it spreads. Less than 1% of people are still a lot of people. The reality is we don’t have to accept these numbers. There is much we can do.
Inflammation and Underlying Conditions
COVID-19 isn't the only health crisis in our country right now. Three out of four Americans are overweight, and almost half are considered obese. One in two Americans are pre-diabetic or have type two diabetes. As you have likely heard, people with serious health conditions and older adults have been having serious complications from COVID-19, and many have died.
As with all health conditions, it starts with your diet. The inflammatory, toxic, processed foods and ingredients like sugar and white flour that millions of people eat every day creates inflammation in their bodies. Inflammation, in turn, creates all types of diseases. Even aging is worsened by inflammation. Inflammation is a natural part of our immune system, but when inflammation becomes too great it causes us to get sick. Many people live in a severely inflamed state their entire lives by masking their symptoms with medication rather than working with their body to heal.
The reason COVID-19 affects some people so negatively is because of the amount of inflammation that is in their bodies already. Their body recognizes the danger of the virus and begins to create large amounts of inflammation known as a Cytokine Storm that leads to life-threatening sickness or death. Not to get too technical, but Cytokine is a good thing that the immune system uses to communicate as it deals with the virus. However, when the body is already overrun with inflammation, the body begins to take extreme measures to fight the virus and releases a flood of Cytokine, causing fluid in the lungs. This leads to shortness of breath, which can lead to ventilators, which can lead to infection, pneumonia, and even death. In most cases, people don’t die from COVID-19; they die from the ripple effects that COVID-19 creates.
How to Protect Yourself If You Have Underlying Conditions
If your health is not good right now and you are dealing with many underlying health conditions, don’t panic; remember that food is medicine. Food is not just preventative medicine. It is medicine that can cure diseases, including COVID-19. The most important thing right now to protect yourself is to stop eating inflammatory foods. Eliminate sugar, flour, and processed foods. Start eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Drink lots of water and get lots of sunshine for Vitamin D. You don’t have to lose weight or fix your blood sugar or be 20 years younger to beat COVID-19 successfully. You simply need to dramatically lower the inflammation in your body, so that when you are exposed to COVID-19, your immune system is not overloaded and can do its job. Changing your diet can do that right away.
Even someone who is currently fighting a bad case of COVID-19 can help their body recover by doing these same things, eating only highly nutrient-dense fresh fruits and vegetables. Mainstream medicine has no cure for COVID-19 or any virus, but functional medicine doctors have many ways to deal with viruses, including COVID-19. They will be able to look at your current health conditions, medication, and diet, to put a plan together to help you successfully recover.
Traditional Medicine Does Not Address Nutrition
A study of 106 medical schools found that the average four-year medical student received only 23.6 hours of nutrition education. 32 of the 106 schools required no nutritional training at all. Another study was done to test 4 year medical school graduates entering their residency in a pediatric clinic to see whether they had basic nutritional knowledge. Of the 18 simple nutrition questions these med school graduates were asked, they barely scored better than parents of the patients of the pediatric clinic.
Is a COVID-19 Vaccine the Answer?
The idea of a vaccine may sound like a great solution to protect yourself, but there are a few problems. One of the biggest problems with COVID-19 vaccines is that those who need it most will not be able to take it. As we discussed earlier, the people who are at the most risk are the elderly or those who have a serious health condition, and taking any vaccine with these conditions poses a serious risk. On top of that, the fastest vaccine ever created to date took four years to complete. If a COVID-19 vaccine takes that long it will likely not be needed anymore. If it is produced faster, there will not be enough time to properly test if for safety. The attempt to rush a vaccine that will be used by millions of people is extremely dangerous, and the negative effects of vaccines often take years to be seen fully. At best, a COVID-19 vaccine will only be somewhat effective, not be able to help the people who need it most, and have the potential of side effects just as harmful as COVID-19. The real push for the vaccine does not come from it being a real solution but rather a way for mainstream pharmaceutical drug manufacturers to make billions of dollars.
Can You Get COVID-19 More Than Once? What About Post-COVID-19 Syndrome?
It is possible to get many viruses more than once, but it is uncommon. After recovering from most viruses, our bodies store some antibodies to help us reject the virus in the future. Usually, that means you won’t get the same virus again at least for a long time. If you do get sick with COVID-19 a second time, you would most likely not have symptoms because your body is prepared and would deal with it quickly. Being infected by a virus is not the same as being affected by a virus, so reinfection is seldom something to be concerned about unless you are dealing with many other health conditions, or have a condition that causes your immune system to be extremely weak. Even then, reinfection is probably not your greatest health risk.
There are trillions of viruses inside of each of our bodies at any given time. Many viruses are actually an important part of keeping us healthy. Our immune system was designed to use good viruses and reject bad viruses. In otherwise healthy people, viruses such as COVID-19 with possible negative effects can play an important role in helping our bodies cleanse by eating off weak and damaged parts of our cells, allowing new healthier cells to form. However, in cases where someone has a chronic illness, and there is an overabundance of sick cells, a virus can eat away too much and get out of control, causing severe viral illness. In some cases that means that even after recovering from a virus you can continue to experience negative symptoms because the body is left in such a weak state. This is called post-viral fatigue syndrome or Post-COVID-19 syndrome. The solution is to give your body what it needs to rebuild by eliminating the inflammatory foods above and eat nutritious foods and fruits and vegetables, allowing your body to rebuild like it was designed to do.
Are Children At Risk?
Babies get some antibodies from their mother’s breast milk, which helps to protect them, but for young children, most viruses are new. A child’s immune system develops by being exposed to viruses, and because, for the most part, their cells are healthy, their body can fight off the virus easily. Despite each virus being new to them, most viruses don’t seem to affect children nearly as harshly. Why is that? One of the main reasons is that children are far less likely to have built up inflammation from other health conditions. This means they can deal with the inflammation from COVID-19 easily without symptoms, meaning they have nothing to worry about even if they catch it. However, many kids live on diets of processed foods and have very little nutrition, making them likely to develop inflammation and serious sickness at very young ages. This means that some kids could also be at risk of COVID-19 symptoms, but at a far lower rate than adults.
In conclusion, the way to beat COVID-19 is the same way we deal with all other diseases. Get rid of inflammation and allow the gut to heal. Eat nutrient-dense foods, fruits, and vegetables, and some pasture-raised meats. Get sunshine, exercise, and drink water. Focus on overall health. If you are dealing with severe health conditions, find a functional medicine doctor to help you through the recovery process and a plan that includes food, rest, exercise, supplements, and other therapies.