MORE GOOD NEWS REGARDING COVID-19
In my last article titled Good News on COVID-19 I omitted to say continue continue to use your masks and social distancing and any other measures you are employing. I apologize for this omission. Originally when I wrote the article this sentence appeared but I rewrote the article to make it smoother as my editor insisted. At this point the sentence got dropped. Taking these measures can slow the spread of corona virus. A slow spread of the virus is valuable and I will cover this later.
The good news that was in the earlier article is that COVID-19 is far less deadly than originally announced by the WHO and the London College back in early March. If their early predictions had been right there would be one and a half million dead in the United States by now. To the credit of the CDC at the end of May, their prediction, based on a lot more evidence was that the virus had a kill rate of about 10% as bad as these early predictions. This is very good news. For the individuals who have suffered with corona virus all the statistics in the world mean nothing as it all comes down to the individual who suffers and those close to him/her who suffer.
The reason I wrote the article is to reduce fear/stress that may be generated in individuals by media or friends. As a doctor I can assure you that everyone who comes into my office has some attention on COVID-19. When people get overly stressed by anything the endocrine system via the adrenal hormones suppresses the immune and digestive systems. You can research the writings of Hans Selye on this matter if you like. He was a researcher in Canada who spent years looking into the effects of stress on the human body function. The use of social distancing and masks is a way that individuals and society can reduce the stress of the threat of the virus. The more we can reduce the stress, the higher the function of the immune system. So anything you do in life that helps you reduce your sense of stress is good, That could be getting out and taking a walk and enjoying the fresh air and environment. It could be handling something you have had your attention on for awhile.
I can assure you that when people are in close congregation, especially on a regular basis, that when a respiratory virus gets into that congregation it will spread quickly. People breathe on each other over and over and the virus gets spread this way. A mask and social distancing minimizes this interaction. In close-knit groups of people you can see waves of the cold or the flu pass through these groups from time to time. If the threat of the disease is minor, as in a cold, no one pays much attention. COVID-19 is about 2 to 3 times as big a threat as your typical flu season but it is one tenth the threat of the Spanish flu of 1919.
Herd immunity is a term that describes how a group becomes more immune to a particular disease threat. We want to build herd immunity by getting a large percentage of the group exposed to the offending organism. At the same time we do not want people to get sick by their exposure. This is a sort of damned if you do damned if you don't situation. A remedy to this situation is to reduce the degree of exposure so that your immune system notices and builds a defense but does not get so heavily exposed that the immune system cannot cope. The person does not manifest the disease at all or only very mildly is the ideal result. A little exposure here and a little exposure there leads to immunity to the particular pathogen. Twenty five exposures in a day could be too much and the person falls ill. If their immune system is not very strong the person could get very ill or even die. In life we want balance with regard to maintaining health. A little exposure here and there allows for balance.
Vaccination is an attempt to artificially produce immunity. If you read up on this subject enough you can achieve a balanced view on the value of vaccination rather than what the vaccine business or the government wants you to think. Government view is heavily influenced by the vaccine industry. Again you would need to become educated in this area to see the scene well. I am neither for nor against vaccination. In my view there could be a time for it and a time not to bother. It depends on the situation. With regard to COVID-19 it is a form of the flu that comes from an animal whereas the regular flu does not come from an animal. Flu vaccines are notoriously ineffective because the regular flu mutates into a new flu often. Animal-caused flus tend to come and go far more than the regular flu. Covid-19 is an animal-derived flu.
What natural remedies exist to build immunity? In other words, what makes your immune system stronger? An analogy is if you want to be in good shape you exercise and stretch and try to eat healthier foods. If you do these things for a few months you will feel the difference unless there is a hidden health problem or nutrition imbalance. To build immunity you have to do a few things to increase your immunity. What are some things you can do? Eat regularly fresh fruit and vegetables as these are rich in vitamin C and vitamin C is required in the immune response. Get enough calcium in your diet as it is essential in the immune response. Get enough zinc as it is essential in a strong immune system. Get enough of the other minerals so you have a balance of minerals. Take some vitamin C though how much do you really need? Vitamin C does not stay in your body and your body cannot produce it so you need a regular source of it hence the fresh fruit and vegetables. 500 mg C in a tablet is a good maintenance level. Vitamin D3 is valuable and as people get older their D levels tend to get low based on blood tests. Take a few thousand mg of D a day till your levels are high and then a thousand or 2 a day should keep most people doing great to maintain BALANCE. Too much D will tend to pull calcium out of your bone and tissues into the blood and you need it in the tissues to mount the immune response.
About 80 to 90% of people who die from COVID-19 have pre-existing, non-optimum health conditions. In my opinion the other people who die have unnoticed non-optimum health conditions. The United States has been ranked 37th in level of health among the modern nations of the world. We are definitely not Olympic competitors in this aspect of life on average are we? Despite having the most expensive health care system in the world by far our results are poor. This is in part due to our health care system and it is in part due to you, the individual, and it is in part due to our high-stress society which runs down the immune system.
I hope this article assists you to deal with the current health challenge going on in the USA and across the world in a way that keeps you strong and healthy.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mike Spearman