From eNewsletter 5/25/2020
DID YOU KNOW that over the span of one's life, the average adult will spend not months, not years, but decades gazing at their digital devices?
A poll of 2,000 adults, commissioned by Vision Direct, found that the typical person will spend a staggering 34 years looking at phones, computers, or televisions.
During the pandemic, however, we're lucky to have devices that connect us with the outside world. A similar pandemic taking place 30 or 40 years ago would have seen people coping with the lack of contact in very different ways. Only a single phone line for a family sounds disastrous!
While good for communication, too much screen time is bad for the eyes unless you give yourself eye breaks. Use the "20-20-20 Rule" when looking at your screens. Take a break every 20 minutes, look away for 20 seconds, and turn your attention to something at least 20 feet away.
PEP TALK
This may have appeared in your email inbox already, so please forgive us if this is old news. A client passed it along and we wanted to share it with you. "For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. On your 14th birthday World War I starts and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren't even over the hill yet. And don't try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war. Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40's, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime. At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you are 55 you dealt with the fear of Polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or die. At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn't end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. We will endure this as well."
WE ARE CLOSED MEMORIAL DAY We will be open Tuesday, May 26th. You may still place your orders today. They will be fulfilled tomorrow. PREVENT AND FIGHT CORONAVIRUS 2.0 - SPECIAL ISSUE If you missed our new recommendations about how to prevent and fight the coronavirus, the information is available here.
COVID-19 UPDATE
Steve and Bonnie: Here's the latest info we thought you'd be interested in...
Why Wearing Masks Are Important
A study published last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that wearing surgical masks can reduce the non-contact transmission of the deadly COVID-19 virus by as much as 75% when masks are used. That's fairly significant ;) There is now a deeper understanding of how particles travel through the air when people cough. In a paper published in Physics of Fluids, scientists discovered that with even a slight breeze of 2.5 mph, saliva travels 18 feet in 5 seconds (see image above). And look at what happens at 9 mph (see the image above). As you can see, the droplet cloud can affect both adults and children of different heights. Recovered COVID Patients Who Test Positive Are Not Infectious Researchers are finding evidence that patients who test positive for the coronavirus after recovering aren't capable of transmitting the infection, and could have the antibodies that prevent them from falling sick again. Scientists from the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied Covid-19 survivors who had tested positive for the coronavirus after their illness had apparently resolved, as indicated by a previous negative test result. The so-called re-positive patients weren't found to have spread any lingering infection, and virus samples collected from them couldn't be grown in culture, indicating the patients were shedding non-infectious or dead virus particles. Most Puzzling COVID-19 Symptom Yet Acute conjunctivitis (pinkeye) may be the only presenting symptom of Covid-19 infections in some instances, according to case reports on five patients in Italy. Passive Immunization Several studies now indicate that using antibodies from patients who have already recovered from may slow down SARS-CoV-2 and boost immunity in patients, buying time until a long-term solution is found. Andrographis Researchers have found that furin, an enzyme we produce, helps SARS-CoV-2 bind stronger to the entry site to our cells in order to replicate. Luckily, furin activity can be limited by the herbal supplement Androgrpahis.
The Love for Immunonutrition Grows Researchers in a BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health editorial stressed the importance of nutrition for optimal immune function, especially for those over the age of 65, concluding that the use of certain nutrients should be used for prevention, severity and recovery of infections such as COVID-19. Of the evidence, they concluded that the largest body of evidence related to immune function existed for vitamin C, D and zinc. Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli-IRCCS, which oversees a number of hospitals in Rome, Italy, started a personalized meal provision, combined with oral nutritional supplements, to all oral-feedable COVID-19 patients. Once the hospitals switched to this protocol, outcomes in its patients greatly improved, according to an editorial in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Where SARS-CoV-2 Transmission is Greatest May Surprise You A huge Chinese study divided the venues in which the COVID-19 outbreaks occurred into six categories: homes, transport, food, entertainment, shopping, and miscellaneous. Home outbreaks were the dominant category (79.9%), followed by transport (34.0%). The researchers identified only a single outbreak in an outdoor environment. As most cases occur in indoor environments, make sure extra precautions are taken at home, circulate your air, and spend time outdoors. Vaccine Update One vaccine we are rooting for is not an injection, it is an oral probiotic from Canadian company Synmvivo. It is an orally administered Bifidobacterium probiotic engineered to carry DNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The phase 1 clinical trial is underway in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Vitamin D Study from India last week: Almost every COVID-19 patient at least 60 years had 25(OH)D levels below 30. Study from Indonesian last week: The majority of deaths were male and older and had pre-existing condition and below normal Vitamin D3 serum level. Even Dr. JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, is warming to the idea of optimizing vitamin D3 levels, per an opinion piece in Medscape last week. Researchers are calling on the government in Ireland to change recommendations for vitamin D supplements. A new study from Irish Medical Journal highlights the association between vitamin D levels and mortality from COVID-19. This study shows that, counter intuitively, countries at lower latitude and typically sunny countries, such as Spain and Northern Italy, had low concentrations of vitamin D and high rates of vitamin D deficiency. These countries also experienced the highest infection and death rates in Europe. The northern latitude countries of Norway, Finland, and Sweden, have higher vitamin D levels despite less UVB sunlight exposure, because supplementation and fortification of foods is more common. These Nordic countries have lower COVID-19 infection and death rates. The correlation between low vitamin D levels and death from COVID-19 is statistically significant. The authors propose that, whereas optimizing vitamin D levels will certainly benefit bone and muscle health, the data suggest that it is also likely to reduce serious COVID-19 complications. Why Men Are More At Risk for Severe COVID-19 Men have higher concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in their blood than women. Since ACE2 enables the coronavirus to infect healthy cells, this may help to explain why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than women. Vitamin D3 is essential for normal ACE-2 function. It has also been suggested that higher levels of testosterone increases risk, while estrogen may be protective. Attack SARS-CoV-2 Early-On Temporarily suppressing the body's immune system during the early stages of COVID-19 could help a patient avoid severe symptoms. That's because the research, published last week in Journal of Medical Virology, shows that an interaction between the body's two main lines of defense may be causing the immune system to go into overdrive in some patients. This is what we explained in our most recent COVID-19 Protocol: Prevent and Fight Coronavirus 2.0.