No 10 - The COVID Survival Plan
How can you beat COVID
Tldr
Follow the COVID survival plan to beat COVID.
Cardiovascular fitness, obesity (reduction), Vaccines, Vitamins and immune health, Diet (low sugar). Read on below for the explanation of how this works and why this is necessary.
Why do we all need a survival plan?
COVID-19 is unlikely to go away. It is now so common that it will become a seasonal infection like the common cold, the flu or Norovirus. The good news is that most viruses mutate to become more infective and less dangerous so that they can spread to even more people.
So, if you haven’t caught COVID yet, then take a deep breath, the bad news is that at some point in the next few years, you probably will. The even-better news is that the current survival rate is 99.5% and this will probably go to 99.99% as the virus spreads and becomes less deadly.
If the survival rate is so good, why do we need a survival plan?
You don’t want to be the unlucky one who has a horrible death from COVID do you! I have seen it happen and I wouldn’t want to be seriously unwell from COVID, or anything else really.
The good news is that you can take control of your own life choices and reduce your risks of having a bad COVID infection.
Here is my COVID survival plan:
Cardiovascular fitness
Obesity
Vaccines
Vitamins and Immune Health
Diet
If you would like to see the papers and evidence that this plan is based on then please contact me in the comments below and I will write a longer post but this strategy is based on a good foundation of medical research.
The first step is to get Cardiovascularly fitter. No matter how fit or unfit you are now, we can always get fitter. Walk a few hundred more steps a day, take the stairs to work, run with your children, walk the dog up a hill, all of this stuff will help. The fitter your heart and lungs and blood vessels the greater capacity they have to cope with being unwell. In technical terms this is called “functional reserve” and the more you have the better you cope with all forms of disease.
Being slightly overweight is a personal choice, being obese is a health problem. It reduces your functional reserve; it reduces your ability to take deep breaths and it changes your metabolism which can reduce your immune strength. Being obese makes it more difficult for your to be incubated and ventilated (kept alive on a machine in ITU if you are seriously unwell). Being obese reduces your vitamins D production. Being obese makes it more difficult to improve your CVS fitness. Being obese makes you more difficult to vaccinate and more unlikely for you to have a good response to the vaccines. Being obese, no matter your political beliefs, is not healthy but it is something you can choose to do something about.
Vaccination speaks for itself. If you are over the age of 40 then you should probably get a vaccine and if you are really unlucky (1/250000) then you might get a bad reaction from the vaccines. If you follow this plan and look after your general health then hopefully this should be even less likely. The vaccines do help your body fight the virus and should prevent you getting a severe reaction or dying but they probably won’t stop you catching it in the first place.
Vitamins and immune health are worth thinking about because we normally don’t. If you eat a balanced diet then you should get most of the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet in theory, however, there is some evidence that modern factory farmed food is not as “nutritious” as it was 30 years ago and doesn’t contain as much of the vitamins and minerals as it used to. Just in case I take a multi-vitamin most days. I am not sponsored by anyone but I currently take Sainsbury’s own brand because it has a bit of everything. I also try to get plenty of sunlight on my skin each day during outdoor walks, runs and sitting outside. I also take extra vitamin D supplements, in addition to the multi-vitamin. Vit D is very important for maintaining a healthy immune system and there is good evidence that having a high enough level in your blood is essential for fighting off bacterial and viral infections. The issue with vitamin D is that it takes a few weeks to increase and therefore you need to take it regularly BEFORE you get unwell. You also want a multi-vit that contains Zinc because we know being Zinc deficiency also weakens your bodies ability to fight off viruses like COVID.
You are what you are made of. Your diet can have a huge impact on your health. Millions and millions of words have been written about the best diet for health and I am not going to reproduce it all here. I am going to keep this short and suggest that your diet affects your CV health, your weight and fat distribution, your immune health and your overall health and vitality. There is good evidence that being diabetic or pre-diabetic is bad for your immunity and that these conditions can be prevented or even reversed by eating a low sugar diet. [If you have Type 1 Diabetes then please discuss your diet with a doctor or dietician first]. Fasting of various lengths has a range of health benefits. Fasting for 12 to 16 hours helps you lose weight. Fasting for 24-72h can help your body jump start its immune system. Fasting can improve your running, your mental focus, your ability to not feel hungry and your ability to control your weight. If you read Michael Moseley’s Fast 800 (https://amzn.to/3tCeCZQ) then you can get all the info you need and follow his plan. My advice would be to follow intermittent fasting a few days a week to start with and then eat meals high in good fats, with plenty of protein, and some vegetables. Avoid starchy food and avoid sweet, sugary food.
Beat COVID with the COVID survival plan. Yes, I appreciate that this is mostly just ‘generic health advice’ with some new marketing but this stuff does work.
As ever, thank you for reading and let me know what you think. Is there any part of this plan you would change or anything you disagree with?