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"Shelter from the cytokine storm: Healthy living is a vital preventative strategy in the COVID-19 era"
"Prior to the global health crisis precipitated by COVID-19, the world was already entrenched in a chronic disease pandemic, which, in large part was brought about by the concurrent unhealthy lifestyle pandemic. We are now aware unhealthy lifestyle characteristics, chronic disease risk factors and diagnoses, and COVID-19 outcomes are intricately linked, creating a new global syndemic. It is also clear that a primary way to uncouple this syndemic is through increasing healthy living behaviors, as illustrated in this graphical review. Moving forward, healthy living medicine should be practiced with renewed vigor to improve human resiliency to health threats posed by both chronic disease and viral infections."
I'm always amazed at the crap that manages to get published in "peer reviewed," supposedly legitimate journals.
Isn't it rather obvious that chronic diseases are increasing because lives are no longer snuffed out early by common childhood infections, starvation, industrial accidents, childbirth and simple pneumonia the way they were until technlogy started to have an impact about a century ago?
Life epenctancy has gone from 48 yrs to 80 yrs over that span. How sick can we be?
The cytokine storm is more than likely a genetically determined reaction, not one influenced to any great degree by environmental factors. Cf- any number of auto-immune diseases that are caused by poorly regulated (from genetic causes) immune systems?--
If I want to know the weather, I just look out the window. I don't need a highly trained weatherman on TV to tell me what to expect. I'm right more often than him.
I'm always amazed at the crap that manages to get published in "peer reviewed," supposedly legitimate journals.
Isn't it rather obvious that chronic diseases are increasing because lives are no longer snuffed out early by common childhood infections, starvation, industrial accidents, childbirth and simple pneumonia the way they were until technlogy started to have an impact about a century ago?
Life epenctancy has gone from 48 yrs to 80 yrs over that span. How sick can we be?
No. The link between chronic diseases and diet/lifestyle factors is no longer even debatable and hasn't been for a long time.
Chronic diseases are among the most common and costly health problems, and also among the most preventable.
Quote:
The cytokine storm is more than likely a genetically determined reaction, not one influenced to any great degree by environmental factors. Cf- any number of auto-immune diseases that are caused by poorly regulated (from genetic causes) immune systems?--
If I want to know the weather, I just look out the window. I don't need a highly trained weatherman on TV to tell me what to expect. I'm right more often than him.
Genetic mutations are rare. A combo of epigenetic modifications (diet/lifestyle/environment) and genetic susceptibility is common.
Last edited by SimplySagacious; 07-16-2021 at 03:24 PM..
This article, obviously written by someone who wants to believe what you say, can't get around the fact that "good" diet won't make you live longer than your genetic potential, but "bad diet" can shorten your life...That's a subtle but important difference..The same argument applies to exercse, etc. ...Keep in mind that cancer developes in only 10% of smokers-- there are obviously other factors involved besides the smoking.
BTW- genetic mutations are by no means rare. How do you think we got so many different alleles at each locus?..(NEW mutations are less common, although we each carry about ten.) ...Considering that the health of an organ might depend on the working of a couple dozen genes, and that there are multiple alleles possible at each locus, the combinations & permutations of genetic possibilites are huge, so it's very difficult to determine what any given environenntal factor will be for any given individual.
Ask Jim Fix about the value of exercise or Euell Gibbons about the value of diet on longetivty. Each were expert practitoners in those fields, yet each died young. You can't overcome bad genes with lifestyle changes. ...and with good genes, you can abuse the heck out of yourself and still live a long time.
You bring up a good point about diabetes-- That condition affects us in many ways, mostly related to accelerated arteriosclerosis, but also related to the immune (healing) system. Life expectancy of diabetics is only 66 yrs, aso opposed to 79yrs for non-diabetics.
It would be nice if we could control our own destinies, but the truth, dear Caesar, is that it IS in our stars and not in ourselves.
"Prior to the global health crisis precipitated by COVID-19, the world was already entrenched in a chronic disease pandemic, which, in large part was brought about by the concurrent unhealthy lifestyle pandemic...
Agreed. Here's an article from very early in the pandemic :
Poor protoplasm" and coronavirus: How the state of our overall health affects our ability to weather COVID-19 By Dr. Ronald Hoffman
During my medical training in the '80s, we treated alot of very sick patients. When things went south, as they inevitably did, we fatalistically blamed patients' declines on their "poor protoplasm".
What is poor protoplasm? As with the oft-quoted definition of pornography by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know it when I see it".
Protoplasm is an archaic term for the biological goop which constitutes our tissues and organs. Age, pollutants, drugs and alcohol, poor nutrition, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and bad hygiene, all undermine the quality of this precious, life-sustaining essence.
A typical patient we might have designated "poor protoplasm": a half-starved homeless alcoholic with filthy tattered clothing; a drug-addicted prostitute with needle-marks on her arms; a chain-smoking Vietnam vet with hypertension; an obese diabetic nursing home resident; a schizophrenic patient transferred from a long-term psychiatric facility. These patients often responded poorly to even the most aggressive medical interventions.
What we're seeing with the current COVID-19 pandemic is that age and co-morbidities dramatically increase the risk of being hospitalized and/or dying of coronavirus. In Italy, where death rates were particularly high, the average age of patients who succumbed hovered around 80. And conditions like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, pre-existing lung disease, and morbid obesity, accounted for the majority of severe cases.
This is not to say that well persons are exempt. That notion has led to some cruel speculation that cosronavirus is merely "culling the herd" of minimally viable individuals. It's even been suggested that we "let 'er rip" and get over it quickly, because the cost of saving a few expendable sickly folks is not worth the economic consequences of a total lockdown. This is far from the truth.
Surviving coronavirus, like many things in life, is not purely a "merit system". In many cases, the "good" are dying young. We see this especially with otherwise young and healthy healthcare workers who are being exposed to enormous viral loads on the frontlines, and ending up on ventilators themselves.
But here's a question raised by Reuters: "Why is New Orleans' coronavirus death rate 7 times New York's?" The speculation: "Obesity is a factor". And, indeed, New Orleans and surrounding parishes are hotspots for overweight and diabetes. We already witnessed its vulnerability in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when hapless Louisiana residents, temporarily deprived of access to medical care and medications, died by the hundreds. Poor protoplasm!
While New Orleans ranks among the worst places in the U.S. in terms of diabetes, the fact remains that 32% Americans have high blood pressure, 31% are obese, and 11% have diabetes. Probably double-digits more are pre-diabetic, suffering unaware from insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. In fact, according to Dr. Mark Hyman, the proportion of adult Americans who are "metabolically fit" is a mere 12%!
Why might obesity, diabetes, and its precursor "metabolic syndrome" heighten risk for those exposed to the Coronavirus? In a recent article in Physiology researchers confirm that individuals with diabetes, hypertension, and severe obesity, are more likely to be infected, and are at higher risk for complications and death from COVID-19. They explore the mechanisms of this vulnerability.
They speculate that augmented angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE2) expression in metabolically-challenged patients may amp up binding of viral particles to cells. Additionally, high blood sugar paralyzes critical white blood cell defenders that search out and destroy viral invaders. Finally, excess body fat promotes inflammation, which, when out-of-control, sets the stage for cytokine storm - which results in respiratory failure and organ damage.
In addition to bad diet and lack of exercise that are controllable variables for susceptibility, how much do deficiencies of key nutrients like vitamins A, C, D, E, and micronutrients like zinc and selenium, mediate COVID-19 resistance? We have to study this carefully by analyzing patients' blood tests - there'll be plenty of stored serum samples to review by the time this is over.
This recalls the 19th Century debate about disease causation: Which is more important - the pathogen or the terrain? Louis Pasteur, peering through his microscope and inoculating lab animals, ushered in the modern "Germ Theory". He prevailed over his contemporaries, notably his arch-rival Antoine Beauchamp, who famously declared: "Le microbe n'est rien; Le terrain c'est tout!" (The microbe is nothing; the terrain is everything).
In the absence of "magic bullets" against the Coronavirus, we might do well to hearken back to Beauchamps' prescient advice to fortify our terrain.
And, just as we've experienced misdirection from our vaunted public health establishment about whether or not we should don masks to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the "experts" got it seriously wrong about diet recommendations; the carb-laden "Food Pyramid" undermined the metabolic wellness of Americans - and ironically might contribute to the present-day toll, not just of diabetes, but also of COVID-19!
Do you have poor protoplasm? The good news is that you can take action to improve its quality - and thus up your resistance to COVID-19.
Probably because they have an autoimmune disorder, cancer, or a series of illnesses that weaken the immune system. The first two are mostly hereditary. The last is common among the old nearing end of life who are vulnerable to sepsis.
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Isn't it rather obvious that chronic diseases are increasing because lives are no longer snuffed out early by common childhood infections, starvation, industrial accidents, childbirth and simple pneumonia the way they were until technlogy started to have an impact about a century ago?...
No, it's rather obvious that unhealthy life styles are primarily responsible for chronic diseases.
Namely: Tobacco, poor nutrition, lack of exercise and alcohol.
No, it's rather obvious that unhealthy life styles are primarily responsible for chronic diseases.
Osteoarthrits (not really an "-itis" at all) is probably more related to lifestyle than genetics--Those who develop it at earlier ages and in more sever forms do so due to repeated trauma to joints from their work or play...from tennis elbow to Nintendo thumb to trick knee from an old football injury or bowed legs in a cowboy....
...other than that, please name a chronic disease that is CAUSED by an enironmental factor. Diet, lack of exercise, certain activities involving chemical recreation can aggrvate diseases that require a certain background genotype..
.Eg- someone without the "diabets gene complex" can eat all the sugar they want and never show elevated BS or the complications of diabetes....OTOH, even well controlled diabetics can still develop complications.
Eg- only 10% of smokers ever get lung cancer-- apparently there's a required genetic susceptibility to the effects of smoking.
Eg- HTN-- aggravated but not caused by excessive salt intake. Historically, limiting salt intake to near zero was the oly way to treat hi BP prior to the development of meds. Nowadays, most hyoertensives don;t need to pay too much attention to salt (everything in moderation.)...Obese people may have jmore troulblr controlling their hi BP-- carrying the extra weight is just more work and some of the elevation is physiological.
Even obesity is not an independent risk factor for any disease-- There are plenty of healthy obese people. If you're carrying extra weight and you have arthritis, it'll be harder on you. If you're diabetic and obese, you're problby eating too much to be in good controll et etc
Even regular exercise isn;t what it's cracked up tp be. If you've ever done it regularly, how long does it take to get back "out of shape" once you stop? --About 2 weeks. It has no lasting effect.
In regards CoViD and diabetes-- diabetics apparently have increased need for Zn. I've treated several diabetics thru the years who presented to me with nasty non-healing ulcerations of the feet. Various forms of treatment had been tried to little avail...I recommended Zn supplements and miraculously the ulcers healed within a matter of weeks....But again-- you ca'lt use diet to make your immune system stronger than it's genetic limits.
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