This is going to be a “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of article, so START HERE if you haven’t looked into or you want to look into some of the statistics (current as of the date this was written) regarding SARS CoV 2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. SCROLL DOWN about five paragraphs to read the good news amidst the doom and gloom of the statistics, or at least some actions you can take for yourself and for those you love to provide you with some COVID-19 armor.
In one ICU in the United States, a doctor reported that, of the 15 people that needed mechanical ventilation, 10 of those people had diabetes, 4 had pre-diabetes, and 1 was a 94 year old man who was undiagnosed at the time. As of now, regarding the current deaths in New York, 95% had comorbidities and 99% of the deaths in Italy had comorbidities. In Italy, where the median age of those severely affected by COVID-19 was 81, 2.7 comorbodities were present in those patients. (3) In Wuhan, where the median age affected was younger (age 63), more than 60% of those hospitalized and suffered the worst outcomes had either high blood pressure or Type 2 diabetes (China has the world’s highest number of Type 2 diabetics in the world). (3)
Let me backtrack here a bit. What the heck is a cormobidity? A comorbidity would be the presence of two or more chronic diseases in a patient that occur simultaneously. For example, a comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes in a patient with COVID-19. This is very important when we are trying to figure out the populations that are more at risk of dying or having severe symptoms from COVID-19 (required mechanical ventilation). Turns out this is not the time to be battling hypertension (highest comorbidity), diabetes (secondary comorbidity), or coronary heart disease (tertiary comorbidity), and definitely not the time to have two or more of the previous comorbidities. What’s the common denominator in the previously mentioned chronic diseases that were the present comorbidities in SARS CoV 2 patients that had the most complications? Insulin resistance.
If you’ve attended any of our nutrition seminars, you’ve certainly heard me discuss insulin resistance, mostly in terms of why we should avoid processed and refined carbohydrates. Unfortunately for us now, we are concerned with insulin resistance as a potentially life or death matter in terms of the disease COVID-19. As of now, the U.S. is ranked as the highest number of COVID-19 cases over any other country. So if Americans are the population with the highest prevalence of COVID-19 and it’s estimated that 88% of the United States population is insulin resistant, and insulin resistance is a definite red flag in terms of being linked with the comorbidities that increase a patient’s chance for needing medical intervention or dying from COVID-19, this is looking gloomy. Keep in mind as well that 40% of our country’s population is obese. If I’m not driving this point home well enough for you yet, know that with obesity comes metabolic syndrome, driven by insulin resistance.
Now, considering some are projecting that 60-70% of the population will get COVID-19, and I’ve mentioned the way one or more comorbodities will affect peoples’ symptoms and outcomes, and 6 out of 10 Americans is overweight, 4 out of 10 are obese, and it’s estimated that 88% of our population is insulin resistant, we may very well suffer some dire consequences.
—> START HERE for the good news! So what can we control? We can control our nutrition, our exercise, our sleep, and our thoughts. Your health is the number one weapon you have in your arsenal to combat the disease COVID-19, or any other pandemic that we will see in the future, and you have control over your health. (I will be stoned and cast out of all social (distancing) circles if I don’t also mention hand-washing and staying 6 feet away from others). You can alter your metabolic state in a matter of days or weeks; but today is the day, not tomorrow.
If you haven’t done a great job so far staying out of the chronic disease bucket (more about buckets later), let this pandemic be your catalyst for change. Microbic events, like infectious diseases, seem to be a bigger driving force behind a person’s desire to boost their health and immunity more than combating chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Now, this isn’t where I give you hot tips on the supplements, antioxidants, and tonics to make RIGHT NOW for ACUTE immune system TURBO POWER. I’m not suggesting you hyper-dose on vitamin C. For reference, Vitamin C has never been shown to even stave off the common cold. For even more reference, the most severe cases of Vitamin C deficiency in scurvy patients were dosed with 1-2g of Vitamin C for a couple days and then 500mg for the next week or so to CURE scurvy. You can keep your “Super Duper Immune Boosting Smoothie”. I’ll just have some lemon in my water, thanks. And maybe a handful of strawberries.
If you scrolled back a ways to my October 11 Journal Entry titled “Sickness to Fitness”, I discussed the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness- Continuum from CrossFit. In summary, the closer you are to Fitness on that spectrum, the bigger the hedge you have between you and Sickness like a chronic disease or an infectious disease like COVID-19. To be clear, it doesn’t prevent you from getting COVID-19, but it may very well keep you out of the hospital and certainly decrease your odds of dying from the disease.
“The Five Buckets of Death”. This image is taken from crossfit.com and the video cited https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/chronic-disease-COVID (2)
When you look at the image above, it shows five different buckets, with each bucket representing a way that will lead to our demise. Ummm Janelle, I thought this was the “good news” section of the article? Okay, okay. So if you look closely, you’ll see the biggest bucket representing chronic disease, which results in 80% of deaths and 86% of our healthcare costs as a country. It’s a big ass bucket, right? You’ll also note that it’s on the Willful side of the spectrum, meaning we have control over it (yay!). This is the “off the carbs, off the couch” lesson that CrossFit preaches, directly from the mouth of CEO Greg Glassman if you want to watch the video that’s linked below. Now if you look to the right of the WillFul Divide line you’ll see Microbic, Genetic, Kinetic, and Toxic. Microbic would include SARS CoV 2 in its bucket and hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease would be included in the Chronic Disease bucket. So, back to those comorbodities that affected peoples’ outcomes and likelihood of death from COVID-19…
“What has happened is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the agent — the virus responsible for COVID-19, the illness, has escaped the microbic bucket and landed in the chronic disease bucket and has essentially started a trashcan fire with a precipitation of death, to mix metaphors.” -Greg Glassman (2)
To prepare ourselves for this pandemic would be to be in the absence of chronic disease, or work on ridding ourselves of chronic disease. I recently read somewhere that to be prepared for an invasion we need to welcome it as if they were a guest invited to our home and we are dressed and ready upon their arrival, not wakening to it as if they come in the night and we are unprepared. This sounds a lot to me like the Continuum I discussed above. We have in our arsenal our nutrition, sleep, exercise, and thoughts. We can prepare ourselves with these weapons and be ready when an invasion occurs. Preparation for COVID-19 is not stockpiling toilet paper. It is also not massive doses of Vitamin C. Preparation for this invasion is our current and future health. Get outside and get in the sun. Eat whole foods, specifically meat and vegetables, and keep your intake to levels that will not increase body fat. Sleep at least 8 hours each night. Exercise or move your body each day. Keep positive social circles and connect with the people who build you up. Focus on what you can control and avoid thinking about what you cannot control. Let’s all take this opportunity to better ourselves and our health. What else can we do to fight against this virus for our own wellbeing and also help the greater good by taking ownership of our health so we won’t depend on others to save our health that we have been neglecting? (I did already mention washing your hands and social distancing).
-Janelle
Saladino, P. (2020, March 17). Fundamental Health with Paul Saladino, MD [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fundamental-health-with-paul-saladino-md/id1461771083?i=1000468644401
Chronic Disease: Key to COVID-19 Deaths. YouTube, by CrossFIt, 27, March 2020, https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/chronic-disease-COVID
Malhotra, A. (2020, March 22). Lifestyle Tips to Hedge Against Respiratory Illness. Retrieved from https://www.crossfit.com/health/lifestyle-tips-to-hedge-against-respiratory-illness